A Force of Nature
by WinterElle
Summary: 5th installment of AU Elejah that began with Making Amends. Unresolved issues and new challenges arise for the family Elena and Elijah have forged, even as it grows.
1. Chapter 1

A Force of Nature

_Milla screamed as bodies dropped around her like buildings being toppled by the sheering force of a tidal wave. When they had all systematically fallen one by one, a man appeared from nowhere, ankle deep in carnage. Like the ground beneath him, he was covered entirely in blood, creating a dark outline in the dimming light that masked his features. Blue eyes met hers and she saw white teeth flash to a warm smile. He paused, a dark contrast against a blazing sunset, to lick away the blood dripping from a finger. Somehow she knew he considered this thing he'd done a gift. It was a gift for her. _

A hand shook her shoulder and Milla gasped, opening her eyes with a start.

"Are you alright, miss?" It was the dark haired flight attendant named Darla. She was watching Milla closely, concern in her dark eyes.

Milla nodded, swallowing hard and looking around to see if there were any other witnesses to her little sideshow. She blew a relieved sigh when she remembered this was a private flight and only Darla….and maybe the flight crew, would've heard her screams.

"I'm okay." Milla answered her, forcing her face into a smile. "Sorry about that. Been watching too many horror movies, I guess." _That's something normal teenagers do, right? _ She wondered because honestly she didn't have a clue what normal looked like anymore.

Darla smiled and said "We'll be landing soon."

She wandered away and Milla worked to sink as low as possible into her seat. The palm of one hand smacked her forehead repeatedly. _Stupid. Stupid._ She knew better than to fall asleep anywhere around strangers. _Ever._ Her face was hot with shame.

_At least Dad bowed out of this trip and wasn't here to witness that_, she thought, trying to find a silver lining.

He would have started again with trying to get her to talk about it. Like that was ever going to help. _It wouldn't stop it from happening. Nothing would. Just like the dreams of the red eyed wolf had come true no matter how much she'd wanted to avoid it._

As the plane landed smoothly, her phone buzzed. It was a text from Elena.

"Keys in glovebox" -was all it said.

Milla was expecting someone to pick her up. That was usually how these trips went. _This sounded even better._

There was a black, low slung convertible sports car waiting for Milla. The keys were bundled in a note that said only, "Drive Careful! -E". Her godmother was the best. A saint even. _Best trip ever!_

Milla sat down and just took in the awesomeness. Rich black leather seats and a standard transmission. She was officially smitten. She loved to drive. Elena knew that. And trusted her…with this. She dropped it into reverse and headed for the interstate moving smoothly through the gears. By the time she reached fifth and opened the engine up her mind had wandered but she was still carefully focused on the road.

Milla's life had shifted dramatically a little over a year ago. A car wreck had taken her best friend Emma's life. Milla had been the one driving. The grief had nearly eaten her alive at first. But that one mistake, that horrible accident, had literally altered her entire life.

Because of the curse she carried in her blood from her father, she now shifted periodically to wolf form. Emma's death at her hands had activated that curse – which was horrible enough. Then, to top it off, Milla's wolf couldn't be like everyone else's. She had become a freak among freaks.

Milla's wolf was bigger, stronger and faster than any of the other members of her pack, even her father. The worst part of it was that Milla wasn't forced to change with the moon. She could shift at will or not shift at all with a full moon like any normal werewolf – normal being a relative term. When her pack had discovered that, there had been whispers. Dangerous ones. Dangerous enough for her father to resign as pack leader after twenty five years.

Early on things that upset her forced the change. That very problem had nearly cost Milla the godmother she loved so much. It made her head hurt to remember how close they had all come to losing Elena. No one had ever really clarified how she had survived, because a Were bite worked like snake poison to a vamp, which was exactly what Elena was. Milla had accidentally bit her the night she changed for the first time, when she was still ruled entirely by instinct and aggression.

Her father had spent months teaching her control. He'd also removed her from school for safety's sake, joking that he was afraid she'd fail an algebra test and eat the teacher. So she'd lost her senior year of high school and all of her friends in exchange for concentrating on homeschooling online and trying not to have four legs and a tail.

Milla pulled into the long drive slowly, savoring the sight of home. When she came to a stop the front door opened. Elena and Elijah waited on the front step for her. She loved her father and the small house she was raised in. So she'd never tell him, but the truth was that this place, these people, were home to her.

After a much needed peaceful night's sleep Milla came down the hall toward the kitchen drawn by the smell of fresh coffee. Voices reached her before she rounded the corner.

Elena was saying, "Just don't antagonize him, or them….or well…anybody. Okay?"

Milla rounded the corner to find Elena facing away from her and hugging Damon. Damon looked up, met Milla's eyes and graced her with a wink.

Elena promptly smacked the back of his head. "And _stop flirting_ with _Milla_! That's the last thing she needs!" Damon crossed his eyes, pretending Elena had hit him hard and Milla laughed.

He walked around the kitchen island and put an arm around Milla's shoulders with a smile.

"Mills, will you go out to the pool and entertain the old guy?" Damon winked at her again.

"Oooooh! I forgot you put in a pool. I'd like to see it anyway." Milla answered excitedly, addressing Elena.

Elena reached across the counter and handed Milla a hot cup of black coffee. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Her eyes were wide with concern.

But Damon's smile turned wicked.

"Awww, c'mon Elena. She's got to meet him sooner or later. It'll be fun." Damon insisted. Milla could see he was up to something. But she smiled and nodded anyway, coffee in hand, headed for the door despite Elena's protests. It would be okay. _Milla actually liked old people._

Milla stepped out onto the patio carrying her morning coffee and walked around the pool. Despite Damon's urging there was only one person seated out here, and he didn't exactly qualify as an "old guy". He looked like he was thirty, maybe. He wore a navy blue t-shirt and long jean clad legs were stretched out over a lawn chair. He was watching the wind move the water on the surface of the pool with deep concentration.

He was tall with short dark blonde hair blown away from his face in the wind. He had high cheek bones over shallow cheeks and a sharp jaw line sprinkled with a shadow of whiskers. He could've been a male model…not the classic male beauty kind of model like Damon, but more like the working man kind of model in the old Marlboro Man ads she'd seen from years ago. All he was lacking was a horse and a hat. He already wore the boots and jeans. His eyes were a deep denim blue and one of his brows rose as he watched her approach.

Milla sat down unceremoniously in the chair next to his facing him, setting her cup on the concrete patio.

"Hi. We haven't met yet. I'm Milla." She met his eyes squarely and froze. Something about them struck her as familiar.

"Have we met?" The question came out without her meaning to ask it.

He blinked once before his lips twitched to a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"No. I am sure I would remember." His accent was a twin of Elijah's and although his eyes didn't smile along with him, they seemed kind to her. "I am Klaus."

Milla's mind spun. She'd heard that name. She'd actually heard Elijah say it just the other night.

"Wait. So….you're Elijah's brother." _Now_ she understood the _old man_ jab from Damon. He referred to Elijah the same way. Milla had no idea how old Damon's definition of old was. They were all vamps. So she had no clue how old any of them actually were. She didn't ever ask because she didn't really care, either. Growing up in a wolf pack, no one she knew ever appeared to be their real age.

She watched Klaus' smile fade with her words.

"Guilty." Was all he said, but his eyes watched her warily. He seemed to be waiting to see what she would do with that bit of information.

She picked up her chair and scooted a little closer, scraping it awkwardly across the concrete of the patio.

"Okay, I have _got_ to know. What was it like growing up with him?" She tucked her knees together and rested her elbows on them, her hands folded under her chin. She flashed her best smile at him, hoping for as much information as possible.

Klaus blinked again and his expression shifted for a second to confused. Milla got that a lot when she smiled at people.

"You mean our childhood?" He returned her smile, but those strange blue eyes still watched her cautiously. Milla noticed on closer inspection that there were actually a few tiny flecks of amber in their dark blue depths. Maybe _that_ was what seemed so strange to her.

"Yes, I never had siblings. I'm dying to know. Was he annoying? He's what….five years older? So…was he a bully? Always throwing you out of his room? Lectures and tattling to mom?" She'd untucked her hands from under her chin and was talking with them.

Klaus laughed. Bone deep delight, with an undercurrent of relief, rang out across the patio.

When he got ahold of himself, he saw she was still smiling at him and waiting impatiently.

"Come ooooonnnnn!" She drug the word out on an appeal, flapping a hand at him. "I'm looking for dirt here." She rubbed her hands together eagerly and it made his smile deepen.

His eyes became distant as he mentally spanned the centuries in search of bits of his childhood.

"I wish I had dirt to offer you. But he was actually a very good older brother. The best." He met her eyes and she smiled encouragingly, motioning with her hands for him to go on. "He always had dogs. So I stayed in his rooms to play with them as much as I could when I was small, especially the pups. And he taught me about horses. Taught me to ride, even." He shrugged, expecting her to be disappointed.

But her amber eyes glowed at him with warmth and her pink lips spread to a broader smile. She was tall and lean, her skin darkly tanned. Her hair was a light golden blonde with natural platinum highlights. It was long enough that it reached her waist and blew loosely around her in the wind. The fringe from her denim cut offs and the sleeves of her white peasant blouse blew in the wind along with her hair, giving the impression of her being in perpetual motion. Like the wind itself.

"That's even better. It figures he'd make a great older brother."

"You are fond of him." Klaus saw the affection in her eyes.

"He and Elena are my family." She told him, amber eyes going wide with youthful sincerity.

"I hear that word a lot here." Klaus had grown still, watching her. The concept of family didn't necessarily have positive implications in his mind.

Milla nodded, her blonde hair moving around her. "That's Elena. She's like everybody's mom." The warmth in her tone said she approved.

"A matriarch. I could see that." His voice had deepened, his eyes narrowing as he looked toward the house.

"Nah, not in that way. She just…" She paused, looking for the right words. "She loves people into submission."

Klaus laughed again, longer and louder. It echoed around them. He thought of Elena intercepting him on that sidewalk in front of the New York apartment and catching him off guard with a hug. That had been the beginning. Yes. That was exactly what Elena had done. _Loved him into submission. Yes, exactly. For now, at least_, he thought.

Milla watched him laugh. He didn't do it half way. He laughed with his whole body, all of him wrapped up it. His heartfelt humor made her smile along with him.

"You are _very_ clever." His comment was a question.

She smiled a little wider but she shook her golden head.

"Of course not." - was her answer, but amber eyes told him something else entirely.

A voice across the patio drew both of their attention. "Klaus, Elijah's in the study. Why don't you join him?" It was Elena, a small hand on one of her hips and a smile on her face.

Klaus froze at the question, watching Elena closely. He'd been coming to visit his brother for months and the invitation into their home had not been reinstated in all that time. He couldn't blame either of them. He'd done damage with the last invitation, _to this girl in fact_. But now, it appeared there was progress. _Welcome_ even.

He nodded to Milla and stood. Walking slowly to Elena, Klaus felt her gasp of surprise when he abruptly wrapped his arms around her in one of the hugs she was so fond of. Her eyes were smiling when they met his.

"Thank you. You will not regret this." He told her and meant it.

He leaned close to one of Elena's ears and whispered, "The girl. She does not know, does she?"

Klaus had been expecting a confrontation as the willowy blonde rounded the pool on him. He'd been braced for a full out brawl considering what he knew. After all, he'd seen her tear a car door off its hinges with her bare hands and shift on the fly to chase after him….all without a full moon.

But rather than being confrontational, she'd been warm and funny. That he'd been unprepared for. The only explanation would be that she was unaware that Klaus had already ripped through her life like a wrecking ball before they had even met.

Klaus and his conscience hadn't been closely acquainted in centuries. But the thought made it twist inside him and it was not pleasant.

Elena leaned back to look up at him and shook her head once, her dark eyes searching his face.

His face grim, he said, "I thought not."

It was a shame. It was also another glaring example of his uncanny ability to break everything he touched. _Just as Father used to say._

With effort, Klaus pushed those thoughts aside

"Either way, you should keep an eye on the girl. She has your number." His voice was low, in playful warning.

Elena grinned and jabbed a finger into his rib. "And I have yours."

Hours later Elijah found Elena in the kitchen staring out the window into the darkness. The house had grown quiet and everyone else had either gone home or retired for the night. He stood behind her and wrapped both arms around her. She leaned back into his arms, one hand resting against one of his.

"What are you worrying about? The invitation you gave Klaus today?" Elijah hadn't been expecting to find his brother standing in the doorway of his study, but it had been a nice surprise. They had sat together in comfort for hours rather than Elijah joining him outside, or somewhere public, as had been their practice up until that day.

Elena ran a hand along his arm and he saw her smile in the reflection of the window pane.

"I'm not worrying. Just pondering. I'd been thinking of inviting Klaus back inside for over a month. He's been so subdued and I've wanted him to feel welcome."

Elijah hugged her a little tighter. They both knew that Klaus could be a destructive force even when his intentions were good. But Elena believed that Klaus' nature was still good. Over the last months Elijah had himself seen a kinder side of his brother. Rather than treat him with quiet caution, as Elijah had always done, Elena preferred to treat him with warmth and kindness. Her hope was that he would rise to the occasion. In Elijah's opinion, Elena's tactic appeared to be bearing fruit.

"So why the pondering?"

"Today I watched Milla introduce herself to Klaus while I stood right here. Within about a minute she had him laughing." Elena smiled at the memory. "After another two and she had him talking about his childhood, about how you were the best big brother he could have asked for." Elena turned in his arms and wrapped hers around his waist.

"You know how she is."

It was a joke between them that Milla's smile had been her super power long before she activated her curse and became a Were. The young woman was entirely unaware of how she affected other people with that smile of hers. It had taken only one of those when she was eight for Elena to lose her heart to the girl completely. Elijah, too, had fallen victim to its power very quickly.

"So you invited him in to separate them? To protect her?"

Elena met his eyes, shaking her head. "No. To protect him. And I might've been too late. She said something I didn't catch right before I went out there and he laughed so hard he nearly rolled off his chair. You know how quiet he's been for months. I didn't even remember that he _could_ laugh like that."

Milla's smile opened hearts and doors. She had a quiet, earnest charm that overtook people like a force of nature. The young woman could break down barriers like a flood, crack a person open and making them want to thank her for it. Elena was concerned she might've witnessed her brother in law getting swept up in the tide.

To further frustrate things, Elena had withheld Klaus' role in Milla's wreck more than a year ago. Elena had decided at the time that it was wise to stay silent considering everything that upset Milla early on forced her to change. As time passed, Elena understood that Klaus hadn't intended to hurt Milla any more than Milla had intended to hurt Elena with the bite that nearly took her life. Accidents happened and really there was no one to blame. But something in Klaus' eyes earlier told Elena it wore on him.

Elena couldn't help but think that things could get complicated fast.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Milla pulled up to the house with Damon in the black car she'd driven from the airport. Every time she got behind the wheel, she loved it just a little more. They'd just been on the interstate with Milla pushing the engine for all it was worth, Damon laughing and urging her on. He had always been a terrible influence and some of the best fun she had during her vacations. Both of them were windblown and laughing when they pulled up.

He had his arm around her and they were making plans for where they'd take it next as they rounded the corner to head into the house.

A movement in the pool caught her attention and she slowed, signaling to Damon to go on in and she'd be there in a minute.

A smooth, lithe form sliced through the water so swiftly she couldn't see at first who it was. On he went from end to end a dozen times in the space of only a minute or two. Milla sat on the edge of a lawn chair watching him.

Finally Klaus halted the laps and stood at the far end in a shallow portion of the nearly Olympic size pool facing the other direction. He wore only swim trunks that clung to him from the water and reached up to push his hair away from his face.

Milla saw completely naked men at home during a full moon all the time. Clothing was disposable for the wolf pack, often left in a tattered pile if the change came on too fast or unexpectedly. Milla, usually innocently respectful – averted her eyes whenever possible.

But this, this was like something else. _Averting her eyes wasn't even an option._

_Dear Heaven, he's beautiful_. Milla thought, her eyes moving over him while he was turned away. He was lean, tanned and long limbed. Broad shoulders dipped to a tapered waist with muscle and sinew chiseled and clearly defined. He was made up of ridges and angles that rippled as he moved. Klaus looked like a body builder, a professional dancer or…._a Were._

It was a common look among them, but Milla had never been tempted to admire someone quite this way.

When Milla's curse activated she discovered that her entire body also changed. She'd always been thin and tall. But now she had a smooth hard layer of muscle under her skin. Her entire body had molded to define every muscle group clearly. Her father said that the muscle was needed during the shifting process with the work her body had to do. Being all girl, though, she'd mourned the ten pounds of solid muscle she gained overnight and that all of her clothes were now too big.

When Klaus turned to face her, she schooled her features to wipe away what had become an appreciative smile. The view was even better from the front, so it took some doing. But she managed to raise a hand in a casual wave and he moved in her direction, diving under the water in the process and appearing again near the pool edge where she sat.

"You should know you've shattered one of my childhood illusions." She said, pretending it was a terrible thing while her eyes sparkled at him.

"And how, pray tell, have I done that?" Klaus asked as he hooked his elbows on the edge of the pool and looked at her.

"My father swore that vampires sink in water like a stone." She grinned at him.

His eyes flashed over her and he smiled. "The bed time tales that fathers tell their children…" He chuckled. "And I was told when I was young that it was witches that sank like a stone." _A nurse had told him that once and was never seen or heard from again when he repeated it. His mother being a witch and all…._

Milla laughed. "But Bonnie does a perfect back stroke. I've seen it myself." Elena's friend Bonnie was the strongest witch any of them knew.

"We have both shattered childhood illusions, then." He smiled at her and for the first time, his eyes echoed it without humor. Genuine warmth shined up at her.

It made her heart quake in her chest for half a second and she covered it with a cough. She knew a little after so many years about being around vampires. Most of it taught to her quietly by Elijah, actually.

He leaned forward, propping a hand under his chin. "Your golden eyes are lovely. What color were they before your change?"

Her amber colored eyes were unmistakable to anyone who knew what they meant. Also common among her kind were the golden eyes that would remain for the rest of her life.

"Green. Like mold. This is much better. Trust me." Her eyes rolled, seeming a little embarrassed.

He grinned at her self-deprecation. "Not green like grass in the sunlight, or a fir tree, but mold?" He shook his head. "I am sure they were not so bad."

A loud voice from an open window interrupted them. "Mills, will you come here?" It was Damon_._

She rolled her eyes again and smiled wide, calling back, "I'll be right there!"

She turned to Klaus and noticed his smile had faded.

"I have to go. But I'll see you later?"

He smiled again. "Absolutely."

Klaus watched her walk away, his eyes narrowed. Her usually smooth long blonde hair was in wild disarray all around her. Like she'd just come from a hearty tumble.

He'd heard her and Salvatore, even underwater, as they arrived, talking and laughing together. To find that one so young seemed to have taken that one for a lover under his brother's roof was a surprise. Elijah never mentioned the younger vampire in their conversations. That in itself was telling. But Elijah's affection for the girl when he spoke of her, which was often, was clear.

Klaus would not have tolerated such a thing, if it were his home. It made him shake his head to think that his staid older brother would. The idea that Elijah didn't know was too ridiculous to even entertain.

He shrugged to himself, turning back to his laps, determined to dismiss it, the way it appeared Elijah had, as none of his business. But images of the two of them rolling together flashed through his mind anyway disrupting the rhythm of his swim until he gave up entirely.

A few hours later Milla sat in Elijah's study watching a small fire pop in the grate. Elena told her once that everyone had small things that brought them peace. For Elijah, keeping a fire going, even if it was a small one in the summer time, brought him that peace. Milla loved it honestly. The warmth and the smell of it reminded her of the bonfires the pack had at the full moon every month.

What should have been a happy memory made her jerk away, turning back to the book in her lap.

Elijah sat in a chair across the room from where she was curled on the couch. He looked up at her when she moved.

"Something wrong, Milla?" She smiled up at him. Always the fewest words possible with him. But he didn't miss a beat.

_When Milla was small, she thought that Elijah was shy because he said so very little. As she grew, she began to see that he wasn't shy at all. He was just choosy about what he said and to whom._

_ She learned to understand him the night she had a little emergency of her own._

_ At about eleven years old, during a visit with her father, Elena had put her to bed. The whole house went quiet and her Dad was asleep in the next room. But Milla had a mad craving for cookies. This was a big no-no with both her Dad and Elena, so Milla slunk down the stairs and headed for the kitchen in the dark. She scaled the counter like a monkey and went rummaging through the cabinets in search of the treats she knew Elena kept somewhere close. _

_ But Milla lost her footing in her stocking feet and teetered off the counter. Elijah appeared out of nowhere and caught her just before she smashed her head into the kitchen island. _

_He stood, her still across his arms in a fireman's carry when he asked, "What are you searching for, Milla?"_

_Expecting a lecture, she gave him her brightest smile and said sheepishly, "Cookies. It's an emergency."_

_But Elijah didn't lecture. He tipped his head back and laughed._

_He showed her where they were and gave her two with a glass of milk in exchange for a promise to brush her teeth again. _

_He then sat next to her and winked conspiratorially. "No more climbing. Come to me if you have another 'cookie emergency'. We'll get you taken care of."_

Milla discovered an unexpected partner in crime that night.

Over time she'd come to trust him completely. So she shared with him something she hadn't told anyone else.

"Dad stepped down as pack leader at home."

Elijah sat down his book and turned to meet her eyes. "Why?"

She looked at the floor, her eyes filling with tears. "It's my fault."

Elijah leaned forward in his chair, his hands clasped at his knees. "Tell me."

She swallowed hard. "When they found out I don't have to shift with the moon, things turned ugly."

"And they forced you out?" His quiet voice had grown gruff.

Milla could only nod, swallowing hard.

Her hair blew back and he was standing, hauling her into his arms for a hug.

"I'm so sorry, child."

The pack had been her family from childhood, or as close as she could get to one. Her father had been an orphan raised in the foster system and her mother had walked away from them when Milla was only two years old. That was why these people and her father were the only family Milla had left. And it was enough.

After a minute, Milla rose on tip toe and pressed a kiss to Elijah's cheek like she'd been doing, it felt like, for most of her life.

_Elijah quietly burned hot at the thought of those people turning her away. People she'd known and trusted most of her life had shunned her. The pain that must have caused and she'd never shown a flicker of it until now. It also made Elijah wonder where Jack was right now and why she was bearing this without him. That was completely out of character for the pack leader he'd known, and respected, for nearly a decade._

A few hours later Klaus headed for the front door after sunset, intending to sit with Elijah. Elijah had bought up much of the land surrounding their home and now had nearly a hundred acres that spanned in all directions. His brother wasn't fond of neighbors. Klaus had taken up residence in a small cabin at the edge of the westward corner of the land at Elijah's suggestion. It wasn't fancy, but it was quiet and convenient while he was here. He didn't know how long the inkling to remain would last. When the need to move on struck him, Elijah knew he would just disappear again for a while. But he knew now where his brother was and that he was welcome. That meant a great deal more than he'd realized until Elena's invitation into their home again.

He stopped to knock when he heard a familiar voice from inside.

"Elena, I'm going out for a run. I'm restless. Just be warned." It was Milla's husky voice. And Klaus felt sure it was a lie. The sun had been down for several hours and he doubted that jogging in the dark would be a hobby of hers. Klaus didn't hear Elena answer.

He moved toward the back of the house quietly and stayed purposely downwind, shrouded and waiting to watch her meet up with Salvatore, he was sure. It didn't seem to matter that it was none of his business.

The door opened and closed. He watched her move toward the gardens, but the lights stayed off. He noticed with a brow up that she was wearing jeans, sandals and a yellow t-shirt…for a jog. _Naturally_, he thought, doubting her word even more.

She stopped at a bench surrounded on two sides by shrubbery and sat. His eyes went wide when he realized she was removing her sandals, sitting them neatly under the bench. They went wider still when she stood and pulled the yellow t-shirt over her head, leaving a pink lace bra covering small, high breasts.

She was undressing.

It never occurred to Klaus that he should look away. If it had, he would've dismissed it.

She turned away from him and Klaus saw the display of muscle flowing across her shoulders and back as she maneuvered to remove the bra.

When the bra was removed she turned again, facing him, to take off her jeans.

That muscular ripple wasn't isolated to her back. Arms, abdomen, shoulders and a small waist all worked together with small high breasts to pull a quiet strangled sound from him. He worked soundlessly to clear his throat. He'd clearly been without a woman for too long if all it took was seeing a lovely naked female to do this to him.

Klaus had never been one to be alone for very long, after all.

But it was what Milla did next that absolutely took his breath away.

He watched as her arms came around at an unnatural angle. Her small frame pitched forward with force as she caught herself with both hands on the grass. A high pitched scream of anguish tore through the silence. It made his stomach clench and he stepped out soundlessly, alarmed. He turned back to the house expecting to find the yard filled with others concerned about her. But no one came and the sound went on. Milla, caught in agony, didn't see him. Her body shifted as he heard the concerted sound of many bones breaking and shifting position at once. He watched her shudder, shake and stretch as her body was disassembled and remade in the space of a few breaths. The scream changed by degrees to a deep howl that split the night.

Where she'd been standing, there was now a very large golden wolf, just as he'd seen more than a year ago on the roadside. She bounded off into the trees, the howl becoming sharp joyful barks as she disappeared into the darkness.

_I'm going out for a run_, she'd said.

She could control it; and chose to embrace what she was. She sought it out, even.

He personally had never been one to exactly celebrate the wolf inside him, having had it tethered to illegitimacy and shame for his entire existence. Even Elijah had never seen his wolf. Not once in all this time.

As for the pain, he personally didn't face it because of his lone hybrid status. But Klaus had seen grown men tremble when the full moon approached and search for anything that would stop it, even death. She faced unimaginable pain every time she changed and would continue to face it for the first decade at least. But, rather than be forced by the phases of the moon, this Milla stepped into it with her eyes wide open, grasping it with both hands.

The backbone that took left Klaus shaking his head in sheer wonder. There was much more to this girl than he'd realized.

**Author's note:**

**Reviews and comments are always appreciated.**

**Thank you for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When Milla disappeared into the trees, Klaus turned back to the house and rang the bell. Elena was the one to answer, and just who he was looking for.

He had questions and knew Elena would have answers. When she told him where Elijah was, he smiled and slid onto a bar stool in the kitchen, where she seemed to always be. She was putting dishes away.

"I actually hoped to talk to you." He told her. She turned and looked him in the eyes. That habit of hers had made him uncomfortable at first. He knew she was sizing him up and seeing, usually, more than he intended. But he'd grown accustomed to her quick inventory and only smiled back now.

She wiped her hands on a towel and sat down next to him at the bar.

"Can I ask how a werewolf ended up in your little family, Elena?" She shifted on her seat, telling him the question made her uncomfortable.

"Oh. You must've heard her when you came up." Klaus only nodded, not willing to admit that he'd seen…well…everything just a few moments ago.

"It's a long story, but we've known her since she was small. She was dying and I gave her some of my blood in hopes it would heal her." Klaus, surprised, watched her closely. "It worked and their traditions made us family after that. She became my god daughter."

"So…your blood…" Klaus was pondering the implications when Elena interrupted his thoughts.

"Her illness was in her bones and blood, in her genetic make up. The blood fixed that, but it made permanent changes, too. Elijah believes this is why when her curse was activated by the wreck that she ended up different. She's bigger, stronger and not bound to the moon phases…..probably because of me." Elena shook her head, her expression tight and pained.

But Klaus had frozen at her words. _Her curse was activated by the wreck. _The words rolled over and over in his mind, beating out a rhythm. He'd had no clue that night was her first transformation. She'd changed so fluidly that he'd assumed it was something she did often. Milla wrecked her car because he'd followed her, killed her friend and ended up cursed for the rest of her life. _Because of him._

Because even when he meant no harm, he created chaos. Lives. People. He'd left a trail of earth shattering destruction behind him for centuries and never stopped to give a damn. But even when the ache to destroy faded about a decade ago, it was so much a part of him that he couldn't stop it anymore. It had become as natural to him as breathing, defining him whether he liked it or not. He was caught now, like a cornered predator, in the consequences of his actions, destroying anything and anyone that came within arm's reach.

Elena was lost in her thoughts for a minute, where she was internally blaming herself even for Milla's pack rejecting her – something Elijah had just filled her in on. She looked up to find that Klaus was staring, pale and wide eyed at the kitchen counter. He neither moved nor breathed. It reminded her of how Elijah would do that when he was very upset, he'd go as still and quiet as death itself.

Worry made her lay a hand over one of his, propped on his knee.

"Are you okay?" He stirred, met her eyes. His were a deep blue, like the ocean after a storm.

"I did not know about the wreck activating her curse. She changed so fast that….." Shaken, he spoke more freely than he usually did.

"She is so young." A shoulder rose and fell in a small, sad shrug. "I suppose I should have known." He swallowed hard, met Elena's eyes and stood, leaving their home in a gust of wind in the need to escape.

Elena saw torment in his eyes in that last glance and knew she had to do something.

Elena was waiting at the kitchen bar when Milla walked down the stairs the following morning with two cups of coffee waiting, one for each of them.

_Uh, oh_, Milla thought. _What did I do that she's found out about this time? _Milla had played out this scene before. Her usual perky step slowed to a crawl and Elena, having not even looked up yet, noticed.

Elena turned a warm smile on her. "You're not in trouble. I promise."

Milla blew a relieved sigh and relaxed to a smile again, reaching thankfully for the coffee.

"Good. What's up?"

Elena turned to focus her eyes on the kitchen counter and Milla could feel her tension.

"I have something I need to tell you. I'm concerned you're going to get upset. Should we go outside for this?" Elena was asking if Milla had enough control not to shift and wreck the house. But asking in her own kind and loving way.

"Is Dad okay?" Milla's heart had stopped and seemed to be waiting for an answer before it started up again.

Elena met her eyes swiftly. "Yes, honey. He's fine. This is about you."

Milla blew another sigh and took a good long sip of her coffee.

"Then it'll be ok. Hit me with it."

Two days later Klaus rang the doorbell.

Milla was the one who answered the bell. She wore a lemon yellow knee length sundress and brown sandals. Her hair was pulled back into a French braid that would have spanned nearly the entire length of her back but was draped over one shoulder. Klaus decided she looked like sunlight itself.

Rather than opening the door, though, Milla stepped out with him and closed it behind her.

One of her hands came up to hook at his elbow, intending to change his direction and get his attention. But the place where she touched him lit up like he'd just been charged with electricity. She pulled her hand swiftly away and looked at it strangely.

"I need to talk alone with you." She told him huskily as she watched the hand she'd touch him with open and close.

Her terse words sank in and tension gripped him. Gone was the sweet, charming girl he'd come to know.

"Where?" He asked quietly.

Milla looked around. "We can just walk the driveway if you want." It was nearly a mile long. Plenty of time and room for damage, he supposed. _He would not fight with her._ If this was about what he thought it was, whatever she had to dish out he had more than earned.

Klaus turned and headed back down the front steps and stopped at the bottom, waiting for her to proceed him in the direction she'd suggested.

The two of them walked quietly for a few yards. The gravel under their shoes crunching was the only sound.

Milla kept opening and closing her hand. That was the strangest thing. She'd laid a hand on his arm and felt a pulse of something, a little like static electricity, but stronger. Klaus had seemed to jolt under her hand too, turning to look at it where she touched him.

She forced herself to focus. After her conversation with Elena, she'd been watching closely for Klaus to reappear to see Elijah. Elena said that Klaus had been quiet and sad for months. Elena's theory was that the wreck had played a hand in that somehow.

Elena hadn't exactly said bad things about Klaus, only that he was very old, very strong and unpredictable. That had told Milla enough. But she still couldn't bring herself to treat him with the caution Elena seemed to be leaning toward.

Milla wanted to help, if she could. The idea that the red eyed wolf she'd seen had somehow been him was still baffling and Elena had said she would have to ask Klaus to explain that, if he would.

She drew a deep breath and finally spoke after they'd walked a few dozen yards in silence.

"Elena gave me your message from last year." He'd asked Elena to tell her he was sorry about her friend and it hadn't been his intention for anyone to get hurt when her wreck happened.

His steps halted abruptly behind her. Milla stopped too and the gravel crunched under her sandals as she spun.

His face was pale and his deep blue eyes moved over her with the same caution she'd seen in him the day they met.

She took a small step toward him.

"I just wanted to tell you that I know. And it's ok."

A deep crease appeared between his brows as they furrowed at her. His mouth was a hard line and his eyes narrowed.

"I do not understand." The words were a question, his voice gruff and tight.

"I don't think you meant to hurt anyone. And no one blames you, especially me." She took another step toward him.

"The girl…." His voice trailed off. "Your friend…." He swallowed hard and shifted his gaze to the ground. "Your curse."

Milla took another step toward Klaus. She could hear it now. Pain made his voice thick. Empathy because of her own pain at the loss of Emma made her see clearly.

She was in touching distance of him again and started to reach for his hand. Milla stopped herself when she remembered the jolt she'd felt only a minute or two ago. It made her cautious because she'd not felt anything like that before. She drew a deep breath and decided her fears were her problem.

_She was here for him._

Milla stepped in close and wrapped both arms around him. He was a full head taller than her. She usually towered over others, but she stood close to him this way and her head tucked under his chin. The pulse of electricity happened again, stronger this time, but she held on anyway. After a few seconds, his arms came down around her, wrapping tightly and locking her in place.

She braced her forehead against his chest and spoke again.

"I forgive you." His chest hitched under her and expanded on a deep breath. One of his hands moved slowly over her back, making the sensation flow across her skin along with it.

"I expected we had come out here because you wanted to collect a pound or two of flesh." The words were a surprised rush and his voice sounded deeper than she'd heard it before.

Milla shook her head against him. "I think you've been punishing yourself. I'm just here to say I forgive you."

"Those words again…."

She looked up into his eyes. They were darker than before and the amber flecks seemed to glow a little down at her.

"I'd say you haven't heard them nearly enough."

He pulled her more closely to him and she lost sight of his eyes, seeing only the white shirt he wore.

"You have no idea." His voice was deep again, vibrating through his chest.

Milla let go and stepped back from his arms slowly. She turned and walked the direction they had already been headed, expecting he would follow. After a moment, he did.

She kept up the slow pace and didn't turn around when she spoke again. "I do have a question for you, though."

His deep voice answered her quietly. "Then ask it."

"That night I saw a red eyed Were. But Elena says it was you there. How is that possible?" It had confused and frightened her at the time because all Weres had amber eyes.

His steps halted and he said "You mean this?"

Milla turned just in time to see him shift. For Milla the process was incredibly painful. Bones shifted, stretched and popped in and out of joint as she took her new shape resulting in a scream or two no matter how much she tried to do it quietly. Her father assured her with time it would become less painful, but she suffered with it.

Watching Klaus, wind picked up around her and his body became like water flowing into a new container. One minute he was a tall handsome man, the next he was a wolf even larger than hers. His fur was mostly grey, with small bits of black blended in. Standing next to him, he towered over her, his ears reaching nearly nine feet off the ground. Large glowing red eyes blinked down at her.

A flash of understanding struck and Milla understood why she'd felt like she'd met him before when she met him that first day at the pool. Those eyes. Usually one Were recognized another when their eyes met. The night of her wreck, after her change, she must've met his eyes at least once.

She smiled and reached a hand to touch his muzzle. He blinked and lowered his head, leaning into her hand. She noticed that his clothes weren't ripped and scattered around like hers would be if she shifted right now.

"You're beautiful." It was a warm rush of words, her eyes wide with wonder.

He shifted again and wind blew through her hair. He was smiling at her.

"Now that is definitely something no one else has ever said to me." He was dressed again just like before. She could only guess at how he'd managed that.

Milla turned again, walking and thinking hard about what she'd just seen. His steps echoed behind her like before.

"So you're both…"

"Yes." His deep voice sounded different and she glanced back. There was a furrow between his brows she knew now was worry. It made her stop and spin again on the gravel. His eyes were on the ground.

She thought of how her pack had rejected her when they found out she was different. If he'd lived a long time this way, no doubt he'd faced the same, or worse. It made her take more steps in his direction, the empathy rising up again.

"You know, my pack forced me out." His eyes swung to meet hers. "People I grew up with and loved called me "abomination" because I don't change with the moon." She watched his eyes turn hard and narrow as she spoke. "I know how that feels. So, just know what you are or aren't doesn't matter. Not to me." The shoulder under her braid rose and fell.

The air stole her breath and he was the one wrapping arms around her.

"I know all about that word." The words ground out of him and she guessed he spoke through gritted teeth. "Give me names and they will never speak it again." The promise was a deep growl.

Her nose was firmly pressed to his chest and she closed her arms around him, locking her hands at his back.

"I don't need revenge. I'm just offering you acceptance I didn't find with them, if you need it."

Klaus jerked upright in her arms, a hard shudder she didn't understand rocketed through him. She held on, not sure what was happening.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so." He gasped and it sounded like he was in pain. "I am not sure. It feels like my chest is on fire."

She moved to step away, but he didn't let her go.

"No. Just give me a minute."

Milla laid a hand on his back and it felt hot to the touch.

"You have a fever." She whispered, astounded.

"That is impossible." Another gasp of pain rose from Klaus. Milla laid her cheek against his chest and held on, offering what little she could to help him. He seemed to be radiating heat.

He drew ragged breaths for several minutes and eventually grew still.

Milla didn't move, but she said, "Let me go for help for you. Something's wrong."

He loosened his grip and she stepped back, looking up at him as she did. The deep blue eyes that met hers were misted and ravaged with pain.

"I'll get someone. Just wait here." Klaus nodded wordlessly and Milla ran with all of her might for the house.

She skidded into the kitchen, sliding across the marble floor. Elena stood at the fridge and Elijah was seated at a barstool along the edge of the kitchen island.

"Klaus is out front and he needs help."

They both turned to look at her.

"Can vamps have heart attacks? Because he's in pain and says his chest hurts." The words rushed out of her as two worried sets of brown eyes moved over her.

Both of them were up and out so fast she never saw them leave, her hair spinning around her in a flurry.

When Milla got back out to the driveway, Elena was standing there alone.

"He's gone?" Milla asked, fighting tears.

"There was no one here. But Elijah can find him." She reached and put an arm around Milla's shoulders, turning back to the house. "Tell me what happened."

Milla told her about him being in pain again. When Elena asked her how he described it, she repeated what Klaus had said about a fire in his chest.

Elena's face split to a smile, her eyes wide with joy.

Milla froze. "I don't understand."

Elena took her hand, smiling. "Tell me what the two of you were talking about."

They went back into the kitchen and Milla struggled to remember exactly what had been said.

"We talked about the wreck. How it wasn't anyone's fault." She started. "Then he showed me his wolf." Elena's mouth fell open.

"He _showed_ you?" Elena gasped the words out. "Elijah hasn't ever seen it." Elena shook her head.

"Oh, Elena. He's beautiful. Really beautiful. And I told him so." Milla was smiling at the memory. His wolf was even larger than she was, something she hadn't seen before.

Milla told her all she could remember and Elena explained about vampires and their humanity for the first time in her hearing.

Milla drew a deep breath. "So, for instance, if he offered to kill someone for me…"

"They'd be as good as dead." Elena finished for her.

Milla sat back on the stool slowly. He'd never been violent or cruel around her. He'd always seemed warm and kind, even the first time they met at the pool. Milla pointed that out to Elena.

"Maybe because he's been so long without it, it was a longer process. What for me took a few minutes took him more than a year, or maybe longer. He was restless and frustrated already when he reappeared after he and Elijah hadn't spoken in twenty years. He was different even then. More thoughtful somehow."

Elena was smiling as she said, "I don't know if you remember it or not, but it was you that brought me back to my humanity the one time I lost it. You faced me down at nine or ten years old. From the first word you spoke, that fire had lit in my chest. By the time you were done it had become a bonfire and I was in tears. There are no tears when your humanity is gone." Elena smiled broadly.

"If there was ever one of us no one would have dreamed would find his way back, it would be Klaus."

Elijah stood in a jumble of trees and roots, his face to the wind. He'd roamed twenty miles following Klaus' scent and lost it suddenly. He moved to the top of the mound and searched the winds again. They buffeted around him and he found it, coming from above. He looked up and recognized the butte that he and Elena still visited sometimes in the early mornings.

He sprinted up the side and found his brother seated on the top of the boulder he and Elena braced against to challenge one another. This place made Elijah smile. So much warmth and laughter here. It was also the first place he'd seen Klaus in twenty years.

He stopped next to Klaus and sat, draping his legs of the edge as Klaus did. Klaus' eyes were focused hard on a set of clouds that drifted above them.

Klaus spoke first.

"When I found the two of you here that day, I was furious with you. How dare you move on and be happy when I could not?" His voice was deep and thick with pain.

Elijah said only, "I know."

"I would have blown through your life like a hurricane, destroying everything, if I could have."

Elijah answered him quietly again, "You almost did."

Klaus only nodded. His eyes still fixed high on the clouds.

"I am sorry." Klaus' voice had thickened more and he swallowed hard.

Elijah didn't hesitate. He took his little brother in his arms and held on tight. Klaus held himself stiff for a few seconds and finally broke, his forehead resting on Elijah's shoulder. Klaus shook with emotion and Elijah's eyes filled.

Elijah whispered near Klaus' ear, "I forgive you."

Klaus shook harder and the tears came. Elena said that when humanity was gone, there were no more tears.

_This. This was his brother._

Elijah pulled his brother hard against him and held him there. He whispered it because his voice was shattered.

"Oh, little brother, how I have missed you."

**Author's note:**

**Comments in the form of reviews are always appreciated. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Milla watched and waited. There was an undercurrent of joy in the house now that had been absent before. Elijah, whenever she saw him, nearly glowed with it. He laughed easily and even playfully stopped once in the hall as she passed, clotheslined her with one arm and dragged her backward into a wordless hug that left her laughing out loud.

Elena was the same, a loving echo of Elijah's joy.

But no Klaus. He didn't come. And Milla _missed_ him.

Everyone kept insisting he was alright, but she didn't get the chance to see that for herself.

After three days, she'd had enough of waiting. Asking pointed questions, she found out where he was staying and, at sunrise, she took the car and headed that direction.

The place was a small cabin set back in the woods. A broad, open porch with boards that creaked and two ancient rocking chairs were the first things she noticed. The front yard was manicured and maintained, with annual flowers in bloom and a small gate. This place was quiet, rustic and welcoming.

There was no sound inside and no lights on. But Milla decided to knock anyway.

The door opened slowly and denim blue eyes moved over her. He wore a chambray shirt and jeans. His hair was more tousled than usual and his eyes were narrowed with dark circles around them.

_He didn't look alright._

"Milla? What can I do for you?" His voice was creaky, like a neglected gear, and underused.

"Can I come in?" She asked quietly.

He turned, looked behind him and back to her. "I think I should come out instead."

Milla shifted, uncertain, from one foot to the other while he came out to the porch. After a minute, she perched on one of the rocking chairs.

Klaus sat in the other and looked over her, his eyes grim and his mouth turned down at the corners.

"In what time I have known you, never once have I smelled fear on you. But I do now. Why is that?" He was direct and gruff. Painfully honest.

So Milla returned the favor.

"The person I knew seemed complicated, but also warm and kind. So now, I'm unsure who you are with this change. But I couldn't help but come because I've been worried about you. I'm nervous. Not afraid. And definitely not of you. Just… nervous."

He sat back in the chair, genuinely surprised by her frankness.

He met her eyes for half a breath and looked down, to study his hands. What was it about those golden eyes of hers that made them hard for him to meet? That she'd seen him being taken apart? He knew a dozen people offhand who would've enjoyed that with everything in them. To see his pain take shape and overtake him.

But she didn't relish it.

He could see there was no guile in Milla, as he had assumed before. He'd been judging her based on who he was, who he knew and what he'd seen. No deception in her. And there probably had never been. This girl was young, beautiful and innocent. Everything he was not.

The contrast between them was stark. Dark, insidiously toxic night and bright, shiny, sun-filled day.

She called him complicated. A precise and understated truth. He mentally added clever, one he'd forgotten, to the collection of adjectives he had running in his head about this girl.

"I am told there is an adjustment period for these changes. So this first few days will be difficult. As for who I am now, I can only say that I wish I knew."

"Who do you want to be?" The question brought his eyes up again. Her amber gaze met his frankly, expecting an answer.

The question was a valid one. It was the same question that Klaus had been asking himself for days. He felt like one of the clocks Elijah tinkered with years ago, with all of its gears and mechanics pulled out, closely examined and then scattered on some cosmic table for anyone to see.

He could see, with clear hindsight, that this was long in coming, starting more than a decade ago. That was when the smash and destroy version of him became bored with smashing and destroying. One day Klaus had looked around him at all the wealth, power, and finery he could take for himself and found it wanting. There was only a vast nothingness in every corner of what he'd built. Even beautiful women left him growling with frustration. He'd burned it all down, literally, leaving the collection of prizes he'd won in his quest for power in a literal sweeping firestorm while he quietly walked away and went looking for more. He didn't know then what the "more" was he that he lacked, but he was determined to find it.

Elena, Elijah and finally this girl they'd both had a hand in raising, offered it to him with a generosity that humbled him. Forgiveness. Acceptance. Those were the "more" he'd been searching for. And the very act of finding it had brought him to his knees.

"The person you thought I was." Klaus didn't even know he was going to answer her question that way. _But that person might begin to deserve what they had all so freely offered to him._ "That would be a good start at who I would like to be."

Truth was much easier than he'd ever thought it would be.

Milla smiled at him. It changed her whole countenance and his heart shuddered in his chest in answer. The fear scent that had clung to her was gone as quickly as it had come.

"I liked him." She said, her smile deepening.

He found he was smiling for the first time in days. When she smiled at him, he couldn't seem to help it. "In spite of himself, he liked you too."

A day and a night later Milla sat in the middle of her bed, the rumpled covers all around her. Quiet tears rolled over her cheeks and down her throat. It was two in the morning and sleep wasn't coming, no matter how hard she tried. She'd been scrolling through her phone and run across old texts from Emma. They were about some guy. Milla didn't even remember him. Emma was always and forever talking about boys.

Her friend's curly blonde hair had been cut to a bob and swung around her face. Her eyes were the color of grass in sunlight, just as Klaus had mentioned at the pool what seemed like forever ago. Milla had forgotten their color until he said it that day, a flash of Emma rolling her eyes and laughing had run through her mind. It was a perfect description.

Emma _stayed _caught up in some guy or another and losing her heart to them one by one in a long line. Milla played along, listened and schemed for her friend's sake, but never played a part in the drama. Not really.

That didn't stop Emma from pointing out the boys that followed Milla down the hallway at school with their eyes. But Milla didn't notice, or even care.

The one thing Milla couldn't share with her friend was the secret that would eventually define her. The curse hung over her head like an ax, ready to fall at what felt like any minute. Milla had always known it would happen. Always. With that worry stalking her, relationships were a non-entity in her mind. But Emma never understood, and Milla had never had the freedom to explain.

"Someday," Emma told her once with a broad smile and her voice dripping with dark drama, "some guy is gonna absolutely blow you away and you'll be just as messed up as any the rest of us mere mortals. And I am SOOOO gonna laugh."

That day had come and Emma wasn't here. She was probably laughing right now, though. More tears flowed around her hands as she covered her eyes with them.

He's Elijah's brother, for God's sake. He should be like an uncle to her, or a cousin. But what she was finding wasn't anything close to that.

Milla didn't even know where it started. Probably that first day. Maybe it was that first time he laughed with everything he was at something she'd said and had almost fallen over.

When she'd sat on that porch and told Klaus she'd liked who he'd been before, it all fell in to place. She'd _missed him_. Missed his smile and his way of laughing at her; the way he tipped his head to the side a little when she spoke. He did it like she was speaking a foreign language and he was working to understand her. The archaic way he spoke sometimes, his accent and the cadence of his speech making her feel like she'd stepped back in time…even that she'd missed.

An image of him when he stood in the pool rose in her mind, pushing his hair back with both hands. It made her heart pound out a clumsy rhythm. She'd seen dozens of naked men, but _this one_ made her skin sizzle and her heart race.

_Oh, Emma. I'm in trouble,_ she thought. _So. Much. Trouble._

There couldn't possibly be a future to this. She was a child to him. And there wasn't any overcoming that. Damon called him an old man. And she was eighteen….would look eighteen for a good long while because Weres aged more slowly. No one talked about it, so she didn't even know where ages topped out with her kind. She'd heard whispers of some who could live for a few centuries, but they might just be legend.

Pondering age in general, a conversation slipped through her mind that she'd overheard last year. Her birthday party, on Halloween….Damon had come dressed as Abe Lincoln. Milla had heard him insisting to someone that he'd met the man once and he really had been a nice guy. She'd never tried to know anyone's real age, convinced it didn't matter. Now it felt like it did, very much. And if Damon was serious, which his insistence said he was, that would make him somewhere around two hundred years old at least.

Milla's tears had stopped and she just sat with her hand over her mouth. Damon talked about Elijah and Klaus being old…to someone who was at the very least topping two hundred. Elena had said Klaus was "very old" the day she'd explained about the wreck.

Talk about a generation gap. She must seem like a toddler to Klaus. It made her face burn and her chest hurt just to think about it.

_He doesn't treat you like a child, though_, the logical side of her mind whispered at her. It was true. There was never anything remotely patronizing from him.

_Klaus is also the only other Were around_, came her logic again, reasoning with her. _Someone who likely wouldn't ever be part of a pack, just like you. _

She could push this aside, these feelings, for that, couldn't she?

Milla kept her emotions, and her anger, under the tight control since she was small. Her father had been helping and preparing her for what she would be for her whole life. She'd learned that lesson even more profoundly over the last year as he taught her to control herself and her wolf. This, surely, could be controlled too.

Milla turned off the light and burrowed under the covers again.

_Friends_, she reasoned as she closed her eyes. _She could be friends with him, couldn't she? If ever there was someone who needed a friend as much as she did, it was Klaus._

The following evening as the sun went down, Milla sat on the couch staring at the muted television as the images flickered. Elena and Elijah had headed out together for some fun a few minutes ago. They liked to run the way she did, minus the fur and four legs. After reassuring them that a quiet night here was just what she needed, they'd walked out together, hand in hand.

Damon was off somewhere, causing trouble, she was sure. She'd called him and he'd said he would come by to see her tomorrow. So she was officially on her own.

Her dad had called her that morning, sounding rattled at first. After reassuring her that he was alright, he told her he had his hands full at home and asked how she'd feel about extending her stay for another week or two in Virginia. She didn't really have anything waiting on her, anyway. When she spoke to Elena about it, she'd gotten a hug and a warm smile in answer.

Milla realized it had been five days since she'd walked the driveway with Klaus. Five days of silence that had been broken up only by her brief visit with him. She'd left him after their conversation to his peace, with his promise that she'd see him again soon.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. She opened it to find Klaus standing there. He wore his standard t-shirt, jeans and boots. She drew a deep breath and hoped her heart wasn't thumping around in her chest enough for him to notice. The dark circles were gone from his eyes and he smiled down at her, but his eyes were troubled.

"Milla. Will you walk with me?" The question was a quiet one.

She smiled up at him and stepped out into the dark. He turned, without a word, and headed for the gardens, past the pool as she followed. His head was down as he walked. Something was definitely bothering him. She couldn't miss it.

She followed him into the darkness and he stopped at the bench at the edge of the gardens. Her place. He stood and gestured for her to take a seat.

He was still staring at the ground, making an effort not to meet her eyes.

"There is something you should know." He still hadn't looked up and she decided whatever was on his mind, it was a bad thing.

She waited, leaned back on a hand.

He met her eyes again and swung his gaze away quickly.

"You told Elena a few nights ago you were going for a run." He looked up again to gauge her reaction but she just watched him. "I was outside, but I can hear every word spoken in that house if I'm close and I concentrate. And you, for some reason, every word from you I hear."

Milla's brow rose at that, but she continued to wait for him to get where this was going. That sounded like bald truth, for him to admit that last part.

He swallowed hard. "I followed you." He was the one watching her now, his lips a hard, downturned line.

Milla gasped and her face grew hot. She'd sat right here and removed her clothes before she shifted. He must've seen her.

"And you saw…" She couldn't finish it.

So he did, after a hard swallow. "Everything. Lovely, but everything." Those blue eyes had shifted to a midnight blue and they did meet hers, then. They were frank and open, and held an appeal for understanding.

_Lovely_. _What a wonderful word_, she thought. His accent made it even more so. At least there was that.

She guessed this was his conscience rising up. But he was also a Were and would likely see nakedness with the same casual attitude she had about it. She mentally sidestepped the logic in her head that insisted she'd felt anything but casual the day she was the one watching him.

After a heartbeat of thinking hard, she smiled sheepishly as she said, "It's only fair, honestly."

The fast flicker of emotion in his eyes was hard to keep up with. Confusion now clouded the blue eyes that moved over her.

"The day you were swimming and I sat to talk with you…." It was her turn to take a breath. "You actually turned and caught me admiring...well…this." She waved a hand in his general direction, gesturing to all of him.

His tightly compressed lips spread to a broad smile. "I had no idea."

"Elijah taught me ages ago how to hide what I'm thinking."

Klaus laughed. "Of course he did." And she had learned from the best.

"I'm guessing you'll see things in that area the same way I do. It's just part of who we are, right?" His smile dimmed a little. "You know, being a Were." He nodded after a second of moving those eyes over her again.

Klaus had spent days working to reconcile his past with this fast developing conscience of his. Much of what he'd done there was no answer for. Most of the people he'd been closely associated with wouldn't care one way or another about his remorse, if it was owed them. And to most of them, he owed them much more than remorse. This one thing he could possibly set right, at least. It seemed small. But he didn't honestly know how she'd see it.

At the very least he had invaded her privacy. So she had a right to know. He'd forced himself up and out, to do right by her, even if she was angry with him in the end. That possibility had led them here, so if she was furious and lost the control he'd heard she struggled with, she'd not do damage to much more than him.

Her innocent admission that she felt it was fair had relieved him and thrilled him at once. She too saw something worth admiring. But her swift follow up that it meant little to her left a foul taste in his mouth.

He'd never been welcomed to a pack or known the kind of community she described. They would know him instantly if he showed himself, as something different. The word she'd been called that had made him so angry, abomination, had come at him from the man he'd thought was his father. The wounds Father's fists left had healed. The words left marks that ran deeper than his skin, the kind that didn't heal. Bastard. Abomination. Whoreson. Each one had been sharply punctuated with a blow.

Milla stood suddenly, drawing his attention back to the present. He could see excitement building in her eyes, so much that they nearly glowed at him in the dark.

"I have an idea." She told him, her eyes bright.

She reached out and took one of his hands. He felt the same arc of electricity under his skin that he did whenever she touched him.

"Run with me." It was a breathless question in her husky voice.

"Run?" Klaus thought about her bounding off into the trees alone the other night and his eyes went wide. She'd called that a run to Elena.

She squeezed his hand, grinning. "It took you a minute, but now you're getting it."

To take the wolf form the way she had and just run with it was what she meant. That was actually something he'd never even considered doing. Centuries of avoiding taking that shape whenever possible stacked up behind him. His doubts must've shown on his face.

Milla squeezed his hand again and he looked down into her eyes.

"Please." Golden eyes moved over him, the appeal reflected there. Klaus found he couldn't say no…and he didn't know why. When she smiled again, he remembered why. He was finding he'd do anything to have her look at him that way.

She, with her smile like the rising sun, was far more dangerous than the wolf she became.

He turned his back while she changed this time. Something else he didn't really want to do. He also held his peace while she screamed, though it made his gut twist just as hard as it had the last time. When her scream deepened to a howl he turned to find golden eyes the size of dinner plates blinking warmly at him.

He'd not been this close to her after her change until then. He was well over six feet tall and the tips of her ears were another head or two beyond his height. Easily seven feet tall. Twice the size of a natural wolf, the size that other werewolves took. Her golden fur was tipped at the ends with a tiny glint of silver.

"And you called me beautiful." He shook his head. "I have not seen another that compares to you."

Reverently he reached a hand up slowly. She sat on her haunches and allowed him to run his hand along her foreleg. Her fur should be course, but it was a soft as a rabbit's pelt. She closed her glowing eyes under his hand and he smiled wider still.

After a minute she lowered her nose, tucking it against his shoulder and huffed impatiently at him.

He kicked the wind up around them, following her example. After another minute the two of them stood in Elijah's back yard sizing one another up. The wind buffeted around them and Klaus lifted his head to it, catching the faint scent of a deer. Milla followed suit, blinked at him, huffed again and the two of them were off.

He let her set the pace, knowing if he tried even a little he would lose her. Two massive wolves moved through the grass and the trees sailing together over tree roots, streams and downed logs.

Tall grass and the low hanging branches separated smoothly as he passed, the rustling noise blending quietly with the language the forest spoke in the stillness around them. She bounded ahead, her tail high like a flag as she passed between the trees gracefully, like a dancer, building speed as she went. Each footfall pushed her farther and faster. And he joyfully gave chase, for the sake of the run.

They found the deer together they'd caught the scent of earlier and both rumbled quietly at it. It made a high keening sound of terror and dove into a bramble. They could've given chase and caught it easily, but their eyes met and they decided together that the run was more important.

She let out a few of the same joyful, sharp barks he'd heard before and he answered her, his deeper and louder, but just as jubilant.

The scents of the nighttime forest were a kaleidoscope of wonder to him. He could have spent hours tracing each scent, examining and then releasing it for the next in quiet astonishment. His normal senses were keen, but this, this was a wondrous world he'd never explored. Not ever.

His wolf, for him, had been a weapon held close to the vest, to be used for terror and mayhem.

He turned to notice that the half-moon had shifted in the sky in the time they'd been gone. Sensing she was close, he circled to find her watching him. She lowered her great head and blinked at him once, turning to look the direction they came. _She was right, it was time to go._ Yet another thing he would do for her tonight that he didn't actually want to do. But she'd been right before and she was right now.

There was very little left in this world that surprised him. He felt sure he'd been everywhere, done everything and experienced all that life had to offer. He'd come to a place in his existence where surprises for their own sake were treasured.

Milla had just shown Klaus something new and wonderful. Another tremendous gift from this woman he'd never seen coming. Forgiveness, acceptance and now joy.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Klaus walked the distance between his cabin and the house as the sun was going down. Usually this was a trip he did quickly, but this evening he had slowed to a stroll, appreciating the sunset and the colors it splashed across the sky.

He had been meeting with Milla nearly every night as they ran together. The adventure of it was new and wonderful to him. Simple things were a joy as they'd not been since he could remember.

Just the night before they'd been splashing in a stream when the widening reflection of the moon on the water had captivated him. He'd turned, signaling to her and they had sat, watching it play across the water together. There was no telepathy or magic in their communication as wolves, just a primitive body language that conveyed what they were each saying or thinking. It was quietly beautiful and cut through all of the drama that language and modern communication created.

As the moon had moved higher, they both laid in some tall grass and watched it beaming its blue light over the landscape. His vision was sharper in the night as the wolf than he'd realized and the light from the moon was a beautiful thing in the stillness.

Milla had shown him a whole new world and it felt ripe with possibility.

He was still working through the changes that the return of his humanity had wrought. But now it felt worth it. _She made it feel worth it._

That seemingly random thought brought Klaus to a halt midstride.

A rush of emotion flooded him like nothing he'd ever face before. Moments, images flashed at him from all directions. Milla impatiently flapping her hands at him while she asked about his childhood the day they met. The way the soft, flowing clothing that she favored fluttered around her in the breeze. Tilting her face up at the rain before she changed and they ran into a thunderstorm together a few nights ago, her hair a golden waterfall behind her. The warmth of her smile when she turned it on him, bright and shining like the sun itself.

Each image came together to build in his mind a collage of her. The full effect made his heart pound in his chest like it did when he was small and racing across fields, free of care.

Was this love? He'd only ever experienced infatuation, having no heart to give while his humanity was absent. Of course, he hadn't realized that at the time and had given it the wrong name then. But that was always empty, fleeting. Lasting just until boredom set in.

What he'd experienced before had never done this. It had never left him frozen in place with his heart trying to escape from behind his breast bone, and his hands shaking like he had a palsy.

This was terrible. Another memory flashed at him, of her undressing in the darkness, the dim light playing across uncovered breasts and shoulders.

It was also beautiful.

Terribly beautiful.

And impossible, he realized, as the weight of it bore him down like a he was a beast of burden.

Standing there in that field, with the sun setting behind him, he looked at his hands. No one saw the blood on them so much as he did.

And he was reaping what he had sown; losing his heart to her. Seed sown in blood soaked ground that was now ripe for the harvest. There was consequence, balance in the world. It was inevitable that it would all catch up with him. This was just one small part of it, he felt sure, to love someone he could never possibly have or deserve.

She was everything good. Kindness, honesty, humor, courage, beauty. She would want someone like she was, a vibrant mirror of her goodness. _That he would never be._ Many lifetimes ago as a young man, before the horrors he had seen and done, he might've been what she would want. Not anymore.

The person he had been even twenty years ago would've worn down her defenses, overwhelmed her with charm and extravagance until she caved. He wasn't that person anymore. Smooth charm and the lies it required escaped him.

No. He would take what time he had with her and be grateful. She would return home soon, anyway and he would let her go.

It was painful. But it was also right.

Klaus would keep his peace.

Milla was waiting for Klaus on the bench in the gardens after the sun went down. She saw him coming from a long way off, walking slowly. It was strange. He usually just appeared in a flurry of wind, but not this time. His slow pace and the bend of his shoulders had her eyes narrowed with worry by the time he reached her.

She patted the bench beside her for him to sit and he did without a word.

Reaching out, she put a hand over one of his, resting on the bench. It still made her skin sizzle to touch him and she worked to ignore it.

"What's wrong?" She leaned forward, trying to meet his eyes. After a moment, he looked up. Even in the dark, she could see his blue eyes were darker than usual and crinkles at the corners spoke for him.

He smiled a little, but it was flat and meaningless.

"I am still working through some things. Do not trouble yourself." He plucked up a lock of her hair that had fallen over her shoulder and smoothed it back. The skin of her shoulder hummed when his fingers brushed her skin. Milla worked to ignore that too.

"Okay." She squeezed his hand once with hers. "But if you need someone to listen, I'm right here."

She'd hoped to be a comfort, but his lips became a thin line that turned down at the edges and his eyes narrowed a little more.

"You mean that." His words were a bald statement, his voice gruff.

"I do." She reassured him, because he seemed to need it. Again, her words didn't appear to be helping at all. His face tightened more.

She pulled her hand away, uncertain. The more she said, the more upset he seemed to get.

"Do you feel like running tonight?" Milla asked him quietly. Klaus had turned to look at the ground and she watched him shake his head.

"Would you mind if we did not tonight?" He answered, fascinated with the shadows around them, it seemed.

Milla could see he wasn't into the idea. It was a sharp direction change. He'd been so thrilled, up until now. He might just need to be alone, but she still hoped to somehow make whatever was troubling him easier, if she could.

"No, it's okay. I don't mind. But, you know, everyone is gone. Elena and Elijah set out for a run of their own about an hour ago. How would you feel about the two of us driving into town for dinner?" She told herself she hadn't actually just asked Klaus out on a date. He was _a friend_. She wanted to comfort _a_ _friend _and distract him from his troubles.

_Friend._ Her logical mind echoed the word back at her and laughed, the imagined sound a mockery only she could hear.

Klaus turned to meet her eyes then and his expression had softened.

"As long as there is no rabbit involved, that sounds perfect." He smiled at her. They had both caught a rabbit each during their run the night before and eaten their fill at the base of an oak tree, their meal lit only by moonlight.

Milla laughed, holding up a hand. "I solemnly swear to not feed you rabbit again any time soon."

"Should we go somewhere nice?" He asked. Milla watched him stop and look down at his jeans.

"I'll have to change if we do." She told him, plucking at her khaki shorts with two fingers.

Dinner somewhere nice, with Klaus. It did sound perfect.

"I will too, actually. Give me fifteen minutes." He smiled at her and rose. Whatever had troubled him was gone.

"Fifteen minutes. Meet me at the car?"

"Done." He agreed and the wind blasted around her as he disappeared. She'd seen Elijah and Elena both do that a time or two. Klaus did it all the time, and his was the only version that left her heart racing.

Ten minutes later Milla stepped out of the house. She wore a soft black sleeveless dress that was open at the back to her waist and gathered in the front to wrap around her throat. At the waist it flared out in layers around her, swishing around her legs when she walked to just below her knees. She'd paired it with black high heeled strappy sandals. A quick updo with strands of hair dangling around her shoulders and diamond stud earrings finished off the look. She'd bought the dress two years ago and never had a reason to wear it until now.

She smiled to herself at Klaus' earnest eagerness to spend a night out with her. It was just something that had never come up and she couldn't help but wonder why.

A few steps and she was waiting by the car, keys in hand.

The wind rose up around her before she had a chance to even lean against the black sports car. She turned and her heart stopped in her chest. She'd pretend it was surprise if he asked.

Klaus was dazzling. He'd chosen all black too. He stood in the driveway wearing a black tailored suit coat that hung open and matching slim pants, black vest, shirt, and tie. The cut of the coat emphasized the natural taper from broad shoulders to a lean waist. He was tall, whip thin elegance topped off with warm blue eyes and a dazzling smile.

He looked her pointedly up and down with that smile and motioned with a spin of his finger for her to turn around. Grinning, she spun and the dress flared up around her. When she stopped he put a hand to his chest, still smiling.

"You take my breath away." He told her like it was a vow, a hand over his heart and her smile grew wider.

"We'll both be breathless tonight, then." Milla admitted, letting her eyes sweeping over him and watched his chest expand on a deep breath.

After a second he extended a hand. "May I drive?"

She closed her fist around the keys with a grin. "That depends. Do you know how to use a manual transmission and which side of the road to drive on?"

Klaus laughed, stepped forward and plucked the keys gently from her hand.

"I will try not to be insulted by those questions." His voice dropped an octave or two with his rueful smile.

He followed her around the car and opened the door for her. Something so simple made her heart pound and she covered it with a cough, sliding in to the car.

Climbing in, he dropped the car into reverse, turned around and headed down the drive way like an expert, his eyes on her as they went. When he reached the abandoned main road, he maneuvered to the left side of the road for a few car lengths, where they would drive in Great Britain just to see how she'd react. Milla roared with laughter at his teasing.

Their whole night together was filled with laughter. He drove them to a restaurant in Richmond where he'd even called and made a reservation. The bar was surrounded by an intricate wall of suspended glass bubbles and the food was amazing.

At one point, Milla put down her fork and leaned forward conspiratorially.

"I have a confession to make." She told him quietly.

He leaned forward too, with a grin. "What terrible thing have you done, now?"

"This is the closest I've ever come to a dinner date." Milla admitted sheepishly.

Klaus' mouth hung open for a second before he said, "That cannot possibly be true."

She smiled, appreciating his vehemence but nodded.

"But why?" He had leaned forward, one elbow on the table and propped under his chin, his blue eyes moving over her.

"Everyone I knew was from the pack." She raised a hand and gestured to herself. "Daughter of the Alpha no one wanted to tangle with." Milla shrugged.

He shook his head, smiling at her. "You would be worth _any_ trouble. Fools and cowards, all of them."

"Flatterer." Milla said it with a smile and watched his fade as something flickered in his eyes. He placed a hand over hers, sending a hum up her arm.

"I will never flatter you. Only truth." His denim blue eyes were solemn, almost injured.

She turned the hand he had taken over and wrapped it around his.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to sound like I think you're a liar." He smiled then and just like that the flicker in his eyes was gone.

"For a very long time flattery was my only form of communication with your gender. I find I lack the stomach for dishonesty now."

She grinned, thinking of their earlier conversation. "And rabbit."

He sputtered to a laugh. "Exactly. Dishonesty and rabbits disagree with me."

The next night Klaus appeared after sunset, just as always. Milla sat in the gardens alone, a book in her lap. She'd not expected he would want to go back to running after his distaste for it the night before. But that was exactly what he had in mind, his eyes dancing with anticipation.

Elena and Elijah had both left hours ago, headed to Richmond for some errand, wearing running clothes again.

She explained that she had to go back to her room for a minute and they could go, so he walked into the house with her.

Inside, she left him in the living room while she raced, excited, to her room. She knew she'd destroy her gold necklace and her rings if she still wore them when she shifted. Her father had already replaced them once for her.

Stepping in to stand in front of the mirror, she gasped when she looked up in the mirror and found Damon standing behind her, watching her in the reflection. His usually crystal blue eyes were hard and nearly colorless, like ice.

"What?" She put a hand over her heart as it pounded away. "What are you doing here?"

His voice was a whisper. "What are you thinking, Milla?" He turned hard eyes down the stairs as he stepped toward the door and closed it, spinning on her.

"But…" He put a finger over his lips in warning, so Milla lowered her voice. "I don't understand."

"Listen, honey." Damon's eyes pleaded with her. "I know you weren't around 25 years ago when he moved through this area like a disease, leaving bodies to draw the flies. But he did. He's a damnable nightmare, just like his brother."

Milla shook her head. "He's different. People change, Damon." She defended Klaus, her eyes also pleading with Damon to understand.

"And I'm not buying it. After so long, he wouldn't have had humanity to return to. He's a plague, Milla. They both are. The worst of us." Damon shook his head.

But Milla had made up her mind. Hoping to make him understand, she took his hand.

"Damon, you know I love you…." Milla didn't get to finish her thought. The front door closed with a slam hard enough to rock the house.

Klaus' words from days ago rolled through her mind. _For some reason, every word from you, I hear. _Klaus had heard every word she'd just spoken. Probably the entire conversation.

Damon was still talking, trying to make her see reason. But she spoke again, this time, just for Klaus.

"Please don't go." She couldn't stop him if he did, and wouldn't be able to find him if he didn't want to be found.

Milla sprinted down the stairs and out the patio door, hoping to catch him before he disappeared.

Klaus was standing on the patio, turned away with his arms over his chest. She'd guessed, or remembered, that he could hear her. _Every damned word._ The accusations from Salvatore had stacked one upon another, all for his hearing. Milla had defended him, leaving him startled at her quiet vehemence for a moment.

_A plague._ The aptness of that description didn't escape him. He'd seen the absolute devastation of many plagues over the years. He'd also wrought that same level of devastation. But it being true didn't stop the tide of anger in him from rising up.

He'd seen and heard the spite from Damon Salvatore in the past, for him, for Elijah, even for Elena at times. At the time he had overlooked it, but today, he could not. To include Elijah in those broad sweeping accusations Klaus himself deserved was nearly more than his fragile hold on his temper could bear.

But finding the suspicions he abandoned about Milla were true was the final straw. From her own lips. _She loved the bastard_. That one was all fine words and charm, something Klaus himself was no longer capable of. _That _was what she loved rather than the imagined paragon of virtue he'd expected she would want for herself. Salvatore was really no better than he was, truth be told.

Klaus' vision was red rimmed as he moved past the front door, closing it unintentionally with a hard slam. He intended to get as far as possible from this place and the damage he craved to do. The impulse to decimate was not a part of him, not anymore.

But he heard Milla's quiet appeal, her husky voice directed at him. _Please don't go, _she'd said. Those three words and their sincerity had stopped him in his tracks. But the red rim to his vision hadn't faded and neither had his anger.

Milla followed Klaus out and he heard the other calling her name to stop her. _To protect her_ _from contaminating herself with the plague. _The red rim of his vision closed around him like a tunnel in the distance that no light could penetrate.

Milla heard Damon behind her, calling her name once as her feet hit the pavement. Suddenly Klaus was gone from where he'd been standing in a gust of wind and Milla spun to find he was intercepting Damon as he stepped out. Klaus wrapped a hand around Damon's throat. Without a word, Klaus lifted him with the one hand and hefted his entire body carelessly over a shoulder, sending Damon flying high into the air. Klaus then disappeared and reappeared where he'd flung Damon, waiting for him to make impact. As Damon fell, Klaus placed a single hand on his chest and slammed him down, hard into the concrete patio and it cracked under the pressure.

The wind was knocked out of Damon as he hit the ground with crushing force and Milla heard the sharp crunch of many bones breaking simultaneously.

Klaus stood over him while Damon struggled to pull in air. Klaus lowered to a crouch next to him, his head cocked to one side.

"Elijah's hands are tied where you are concerned, I think. Or he would have killed you himself long ago." Klaus stood and one boot heel landed at Damon's wrist and Klaus twisted downward. More bones broke as Damon groaned.

"But as you can see, mine are not." He illustrated that by using those free hands to break one of Damon's legs at the calf with a wet snap. A howl of pain rose from Damon that split the night air.

"I hear you." Klaus disappeared and then reappeared at Damon's ear. "I hear you dishonoring my brother IN HIS HOME." A single fist impacted with Damon's left cheek and the cheekbone and jaw both gave under the immense pressure.

Klaus was gone, reappearing at another leg. "But you…" A boot heel impacted with a thigh and there was another loud, wet snap punctuated this time with a scream. "_Oh_, how the women love you. And that is your ONE move, is it not? Say what you like and hide behind the women." Klaus crouched near Damon's shoulder and turned to look at Milla for the first time. His eyes were completely red, with no veins darkened around them. They were narrowed and savage as they moved over her.

Turning his back to her, Klaus spoke again, the words a rumble through gritted teeth.

"I believe my brother has made a promise to not harm you. He has too much honor to break that promise and too much class to speak of it, even to me." Klaus landed a blow at Damon's shoulder with one hand, piercing the joint so that blood spilled out of the hole his hand left through the back.

"Because she loves you," Klaus looked up again for only a beat at Milla's face and down again. "you will still be breathing when I walk away. I would like to point out that "a plague' has no mercy."

Klaus wiped his bloody hand on Damon's shirt coldly and stood. As he walked away, Milla heard his quiet voice addressing Damon one last time.

"If you cannot hold your tongue, I will take it with me next time. We can see how charming you are without it." His words were a low growl but Milla heard a note of pain in his voice.

Milla rushed to Damon's side, her hands shaking as horrified tears leaked out. She sat on her knees without a clue what to do. She was terrified to touch him and make something worse. But she couldn't just sit and let the life drain out of him, either.

She heard Klaus' voice. She hadn't imagined the pain. It was there again. "Get him blood from their storage, Milla. And he will heal." Looking around, she didn't see him anywhere.

She raced into the kitchen and pulled out a blood bag, her hands shaking while she was trying to figure out the mechanics of getting this to Damon when he could barely breathe.

Elena appeared dressed in leather pants evidently they were just returning from Richmond. She must've heard Milla crying. Milla had never been so happy to see anyone. She covered her face with her hands and cried harder.

"What's wrong?"

Milla couldn't speak, she just took Elena's hand and led her to Damon, who was barely breathing on the cracked concrete patio.

Thankfully Elena knew what to do. In a few minutes Damon was breathing better and beginning to move again. Assured that he really was going to be okay, Milla set out in the direction of Klaus' scent.

She wasn't as fast as he was, but she was part wolf. Milla would find him, even if it took all night.

**Author's Note:**

**If you're enjoying, I'd appreciate a review, please and thank you. The reviews seem to work at recommending my work to others. **

**Thanks for spending some time with me here. **


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Milla walked for half an hour into the trees, tracking Klaus' scent as her father had taught her. Her senses were not as heightened on two legs as they were on four, but she was still fast becoming a skilled tracker, or so her dad told her often.

She found him sitting at the base of an ancient tree on a part of the root that had pushed up over decades from the ground. Her steps slowed.

"If you have come to scold, just go back, Milla. Now is not the time." His voice was deeper and thick with the pain she didn't understand. He spoke between gasps of air. Klaus was leaned forward, an elbow on one knee and drawing deep breaths. One hand was held up to her in warning.

She understood from her own struggles that he was trying to get, and keep, control.

Milla's steps had slowed, but she didn't stop. Klaus had closed his eyes, so he didn't see her coming. Milla sat next to him against the tree. Without a word, she reached and took the hand he had held up to warn her away and laced her fingers with his. Words never calmed her, so she didn't speak. She just stayed with him, hoping he would know he wasn't alone.

Klaus opened his eyes when she took his hand. He didn't understand Milla. Not even a little. He'd just torn through someone she loved, but she sat here, with him and was a comfort.

His breathing slowed gradually and the rage receded. More than anything he'd wanted to crush the life out of Salvatore. He'd ached to do it with every inch of him. It was the same familiar ache to destroy he'd lived with for centuries. But the horror in her eyes had stopped him, made him see that was a dark place he needed not to go.

"He is..?" Klaus couldn't bring himself to say that name. But he knew Milla would know who he meant and why he asked.

"He's healing. Just like you said. Elena's taking care of him."

The thought made him want to groan out loud. Elena considered the other man her best friend. He'd heard her say it. No doubt there would be hell to pay. Her promise, more than a year ago, to make him wish he'd never been born if he hurt one of her family echoed in his mind. He did not want to fight with Elena. It made his chest burn to think of it. He'd come to love his youngest sister with the return of his humanity.

"When I caught your scent I assumed you'd be in wolf and ready for a fight." He turned to look at her. "I thought you would be furious with me." Milla was calm and stillness itself, her eyes warm as they moved over him. Not a shred of fury.

She shook her head and her blonde hair fluttered around her. "You forget I was raised with a wolf pack. My father was Alpha. I've seen him do what you did many times. Maybe not with your flair, but it was the same. The way disagreements are handled. With the strongest being right. Hard to watch, but necessary." She shrugged a shoulder.

"But usually it's not the winner who disappears to lick their wounds." She met his eyes, searching to understand him.

"I lacked the strength to watch you cry over him."

Milla pondered that. He had the strength to take apart a two hundred year old vampire with his bare hands – strength unlike anything she'd ever seen. But Klaus said he couldn't withstand her tears. That statement didn't make sense to her. It was a contradiction.

Her mind worked to slot that piece of information into what she knew about him, but it didn't fit. Unless there was more to the pain in his voice and his angry reaction to Damon than insults and accusations. Milla thought of what she'd been saying when she heard the door slam earlier. She had been about to tell Damon that although she loved him, he didn't have a right to tell her who she could see or be friends with. But she'd only ever gotten that first part out.

"Damon has been my partner in crime here since I was ten. I also know that most of what he says doesn't mean anything. He is a great friend. I love him that way. The same way he loves me." Milla waited to see if she was right, if this was the answer.

She watched Klaus draw a calming breath, closing his eyes.

His wordless reaction, the quiet relief, was her answer_. It freed her._

Just this once, Milla would do what she'd been aching to do, releasing the tight control she held over herself. Determined, she pushed aside logic and consequence.

"But this, with you, is something entirely new to me." She told him as she leaned forward, tilted her head to one side and touched his lips carefully with hers.

Everything seemed to stop for two breaths before his arms came around her and she was hauled up against his chest like she was weightless. She was pinned there. _Like she'd try to get away_.

Klaus took her shy kiss and ran with it. Her lips parted on their own and the whole world lit up behind her eyelids. Both of her hands came up to his waist and moved over his abdomen slowly, finding that hard layer of muscle and unconsciously molding its planes and ridges through the material of his shirt.

_Soft, smooth lips touched his and the power of it traveled through him, like a lightning strike. It arced over him following a jagged path, like lightning across a night sky, powerful enough to turn darkness to daylight in a flash._

_Klaus would never have believed that a single timid kiss could render him powerless. But that's exactly what she did. He had lived lifetimes reveling in his strength only to be the one rendered helpless, immobilized; caught and held captive. Her captive. _

_There had always been a hum of power in her hands. The quiet zing became sheer voltage, raw and uncontained as her hands moved over him, stealing his breath with their gentleness._

She pulled away just a little and brushed her lips gently over his before she drew his lower lip between hers and nipped it lightly with her teeth. His entire body jerked once, hard, before he sank into her mouth more deeply with a strangled groan.

He laughed a little, leaning his forehead against hers and still seemed to struggle for air again, but for a new reason.

"You, my girl, have a talented mouth."

She moved close and nipped again lightly at the corner of his mouth as she whispered, "You have no idea."

"Now _you_ are trying to kill _me_? Is this payback?" He laughed at her coy answering smile. It made him want to kiss her again and linger long there.

But something she'd said a few moments ago rang through his mind. _I know that most of what he says doesn't mean anything. _He wouldn't hide or pretend with her. Klaus had to be honest. The trust he read in her eyes required it.

"Your friend told the truth, before, about what happened here years ago." He closed his eyes, not yet prepared to see how she'd react to his husky admission.

"As I understand it, Damon also left a trail of bodies when he wasn't himself. And Elena admitted to me that, when hers briefly got switched off, she had wanted to kill everyone she once loved and demolish a whole town. The only thing that stopped her was Elijah. You just had more opportunity. So I believe that wasn't really you. " Elena had wanted for Milla to understand that it was something that could happen to anyone and wasn't necessarily a choice they made.

Klaus' denim eyes snapped open, meeting hers, wide with surprise.

"I keep expecting you to be horrified." He was tilting his head again, working to understand her.

"Again, wolf pack member since birth. I'm not some human girl with a weak stomach, Klaus. Our reality is a harsh one."

Milla leaned up and kissed him again, not ready yet for the moment to be gone. Both of his hands came up into her hair after having been locked around her all this time. Like her words had reassured him she wouldn't try to get away.

He pulled away again. "Everywhere you touch me, there is a lightning storm under my skin."

She moved a hand to his waist and gently wound her fingers under the hem of his shirt. She wanted to know if the effect was stronger on bare skin. It was. She trailed across his stomach for only a few seconds. He hissed out a breath under her hand.

"I feel it too."

Milla found herself abruptly sitting alone against the tree root. Her eyes searched for him and found him several feet away, bent over with his hands at his knees.

"We should stop this." The words were a ragged growl.

Milla swallowed hard, her face instantly hot with shame. "I'm sorry."

He stood and spun. "Do not be. I am not. But this should stop regardless."

His conscience again. Milla thought. She also knew he was right. There was a time and place and this wasn't either.

"Okay." She drew a breath and smiled at him. "For now."

Klaus smiled back at her and she felt the warmth of it down to her toes.

Klaus was moving quietly through the woods behind his cabin in the early morning the following day. The sounds of the forest were calming and he felt, in this place, that he could hear himself think. Summer had taken firm hold of the landscape. Grass blew in the winds and whispered at him. The older trees, spread out around him creaked quietly in the wind, also with a language all their own.

His heart pounded as he relived the memory again of holding Milla, kissing her and feeling her respond. Just remembering the sound she'd made when he moved closer, unsatisfied with the distance between them, to deepen the kiss made his gut clench.

Milla wanted him. With all her kindness, passion and courage. Him. _She wanted him_.

He'd just learned that last night when she'd told him what she'd found between them was new to her and she'd kissed him, blowing his pain away like a soft breath over ashes. A sort of stunned wonder had taken the place of his quiet acceptance that his feelings were some karmic debt he was paying. Hope flooded him, leading him to stand in the quiet forest all alone staring at the sky and smiling like a fool.

It was something. More than Klaus had hoped for. She didn't share the depth of his feelings, but desire was the next best thing. He had no idea what this would mean, or how this would play out. Again, he would take what time he had with her and be grateful. He hoped to give as much as he was given.

He wished he could just look at her and understand what she wanted, what she needed and how best to love her. She seemed to understand him better than he did himself. But he'd been blindsided by her admission and her kiss. Never even seen it coming. She admired him, found him attractive and liked his company. Those things he knew.

But Milla had evidently learned her lessons with Elijah at a young age about how to hide what she was thinking much too well. Because last night had been a stunning revelation.

Covering his thoughts and feelings in relationships wasn't a skill Klaus had ever acquired. He'd never seen the point. A particularly spiteful woman, at the end of their brief acquaintance, had called him a diva once. He preferred to think of it as passionate.

Turning toward Elijah's home, Klaus decided he needed to face what had happened the night before. He would pay whatever it would cost him to make things right.

Elena perched on the edge of Elijah's desk, her shoulders tight and her eyes on the floor. Elijah paced back and forth in front of the fire.

"It was bound to happen, Elena." His quiet voice was a low rumble of frustration.

"Yeah, I know. I saw this coming months ago."

"Your friend is disrespectful and crude. I bear it because I must. But you can't ask everyone to do that." The words were becoming a low growl from him. A bad sign.

Elijah's words made her heart twist. She'd been unfair to him in all of this. She loved Damon, and she'd warned him more times than she could count that he said things that were going to cause trouble. Being Damon, though, he kept talking. He was still angry about the split between her and Elijah from last year. No matter how much she reassured him, the anger hadn't faded.

On the other hand, she loved her husband desperately. There was peace between them….until now. And he'd evidently felt forced to hold his tongue when he shouldn't have. Elijah deserved better.

Klaus, newly bearing the weight of his returned humanity, had lost it with Damon and nearly killed him. According to Milla, who witnessed the whole thing, it was mostly about things he'd overheard Damon saying about him and more importantly, Elijah. They'd not seen Klaus since the incident the night before. Elijah had valid concerns that Klaus would leave, with the possibility of his handle on that precious humanity slipping if he were on his own.

"I know that too." She drew a deep breath and stood. Elena moved into Elijah's path so that he stepped into her, hoping to head off his building temper.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know you've been more than patient." Her throat worked as she turned and laid her cheek against his chest. His arms came around her. He'd been ready for this to become a full blown argument. But Elena knew this was on her.

She felt him draw a deep breath and blow it out as a relieved sigh.

His lips against the crown of her head, he said, "So you're not going to insist I ask Klaus not to return?"

Her head came up and she met his eyes. "Of course not!" She drew a little closer. "Believe it or not, I love them both. And Klaus wasn't wrong. I just don't want to be cleaning blood off the patio and having it repaired again if it can be helped."

Elijah wrapped her up more tightly and closed his eyes.

"I thought you would…." His voice trailed off. "He's my brother, Elena." His voice was thick. He'd been so joyful since Klaus' humanity had been restored.

She turned her face into his chest and said, "He's my brother, too."

Elena decided then that she'd talk to Damon and have Milla visit him in Mystic falls off and on over the remainder of her stay rather than come here anymore for a while. Klaus was fragile right now and that had to be a priority.

Outside, at the pool, Klaus was seated on the same lawn chair he'd been sitting on the day Milla had introduced herself. He was frozen in place by what he couldn't help but overhear.

He hadn't knocked yet because he was unsure how best to handle this and keep peace with both of them and had been trying to work out a plan when they started talking heatedly about the very thing that troubled him.

He, like Elijah, was expecting he wouldn't be welcome. But he heard the sincerity in Elena's voice and it made his chest burn a little more hotly. More acceptance. It made him shake his head to realize that she really hadn't just been making pretty speeches the day she'd invited him into their lives on that sidewalk in New York. He really had gained a little sister; one who genuinely loved him, too.

He moved quickly to the front door and rang the bell. Elena answered it a moment later and stepped back with a smile to allow him passage.

Klaus closed the door behind him and swooped in swiftly for another hug, this one more open than the last had been. He felt her gasp and she laughed when he lifted her off the ground.

"You will have to forgive me. I find I am doing this to people a lot." He nodded, indicating the hug as he held her up. He grinned down at her. "I think I alarmed the mailman with one of these yesterday." Elena sputtered out a laughed at him and he released her to slide back to the floor.

Elena's surprised eyes were warm as she said, "I don't mind even a little."

He met her eyes as he grew serious. "I heard." He admitted and motioned up the stairs.

Elena only smiled up at him a little brighter.

"When I calmed down, I remembered your promise about if I hurt anyone in your family." He was watching her closely, trying to understand what had changed.

Elena stepped close and wrapped an arm around him. "You are part of that family now, whether you like it or not. And I can't stop the people I care about from fighting amongst themselves." She stopped and tipped her head up, an eyebrow up as she met his eyes again. "But please don't do permanent damage and don't crack the concrete again. Okay?"

Klaus was smiling and nodded. "I promise."

She stepped back and motioned toward the stairs. "Elijah's that way. He'll be glad to see you."

He turned to head that direction and stopped, looking back. "And Milla?"

Elena swept him with speculative eyes and a brow raised at the question. "She drove over to see Damon early this morning. To see for herself he's okay, I think. But she told us everything before she went and only had kind words for you."

Klaus grinned. Milla evidently hadn't told them quite "everything".


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Elijah stood on a porch, his eyes moving over the scrollwork of an ornate black wrought iron screen door while he waited for the doorbell to be answered in the early morning light. He'd crossed his arms and was leaned against the outer doorframe while he waited.

Elena had been rocked by another nightmare that morning. It was time to end this and the uncertainty she was feeling. It was in his power to answer it, he thought. And it was long overdue.

Bonnie answered the door and smiled up at him, leaning over to look behind him for someone else.

"I am alone." He didn't feel the need for pleasantries. He watched Bonnie's golden eyes flicker and her smile faded. She wore jeans and a pink t-shirt both covered by an apron. There was flour dust on her hands.

Bonnie mirrored him, crossing her arms over her chest and leaned to the opposite side of the doorframe, but on the inside, behind her threshold. Elijah had never visited her home.

"You'll forgive me if I don't invite you in, then." She said quietly and her caution was his answer. A confirmation he'd been waiting months for.

"I have to say I'm impressed by your power." He told her. "That was quite a feat."

He watched it rise in her eyes like bubbles in a glass of champagne before she blinked it away.

"I do what I can." She shrugged like it was nothing.

"Really though, reaching across an ocean to stop our blood shipments. And then dispersing every resource I could imagine for obtaining blood without harming someone for a two hundred mile radius." He shook his head. "Impressive."

"It was actually 250 miles, and moved with you." She admitted with a shrug.

"My mother was a witch as well. I'm guessing the divorce papers were a point of contact?" He could discuss it clinically now. The anger had mostly faded.

Bonnie only nodded mutely. The divorce papers arrived the same day the blood shipments that were his food supply stopped. It made sense.

"And the way to break the spell…" He let his words trail off, feeling sure that Damon had already given him the answer when he'd confronted him by invading his dreamscape.

"Hunt, die or go to Elena." She finished it for him.

"And your reason for attacking me that way?" His voice had grown quieter. He'd always liked and respected Bonnie. To find that she was the one responsible for him nearly losing his life when he and Elena split for a short time a little more than a year ago cut at him, though he'd never show it.

"You and Elena have found peace again, but you have to understand what I saw at the time. You charmed my friend at only eighteen into moving in with you. A few years later you married her, made her like you and then grew bored and walked away. When she reached out to you, told you she loved you, you didn't say a word. It was the final stroke for her already broken heart. From what I saw, you blew through her life like a damned bull in a china shop and left her to pick up the broken pieces all alone. It seemed to me that you deserved whatever you got." Bonnie's voice grew darker and deeper with each word. She remained leaned casually against the doorframe, but the ends of her hair began to lift around her like she was standing in a wind he couldn't feel.

"You wanted it to appear Elena was responsible for what reason?" He asked because this point had trouble Elena the most.

"She deserved some measure of justice, don't you think?" Bonnie smiled up at him and it was hard and cold.

Elijah looked down when she was done. Although what she said was all true, there were pieces missing that Elena had evidently not shared. Bonnie only had part of the picture and her evidence did seem damning.

"The picture you paint is a bleak one. Yes. But there are things you don't know." Elijah's voice had also grown deeper, almost gravelly. "I will tell you that there was never a moment I didn't love your friend from the very first moment I clapped eyes on her at only sixteen years old. And the things that got us into the mess you stepped in are things we work together to make right now. Every day." Bonnie's face softened as he spoke and the undetectable wind behind her calmed.

He drew a breath before he went on. "What you did, ultimately, became the door that we needed to walk through together. It opened up honesty between us that had been avoided before. So, although you meant harm, from my perspective, you did us a good turn. For that reason, I'll overlook it." He shook his head.

"But Elena and I don't keep secrets from one another, ever. Now that I'm certain, she will have to be told. And I honestly don't know what her reaction will be. She was very upset that it still looked like she had tried to hurt me even after we found peace. I'm only here now because it continues to trouble her and I decided to see if my suspicions could be right. I'll give you a fortnight to tell her yourself and then I will." Bonnie met his eyes and nodded grimly.

"I do have one question for you, Elijah." A brow raised as she spoke. "My spell should have been undetectable. How did you figure it out?"

He smiled. "Your friend Damon knew too much and couldn't resist taunting me with it. After that it was a process of elimination."

Bonnie's eyes grew even grimmer than they'd been before.

"You should also know that I learn from my weaknesses and I'll not be so easy a target in the future." He spoke with a low rumble and stepped close, looking her up and down through the bars of her door. Bonnie stepped back reflexively, her eyes wide. Even though she was safe, for the moment, behind her threshold, she still seemed to feel the weight of Elijah's warning.

She straightened her shoulders after a moment. "Don't hurt my friend again and you _won't be_ a target in the future." With that, Bonnie closed her door pointedly.

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Across town, when Damon answered the door, Milla launched herself at him. She wrapped her arms around him first and then leaned back, running her hands over his back, his arms. He'd been gone by the time she got back to Elena's and she'd imagined he still looked like he did when she last saw him. She felt she'd left him in good hands with Elena and had headed out after Klaus because he would've been alone and hurting. But her worry for Damon had carried her through the night stealing her sleep.

Damon was chuckling at her surprise and her worried look.

"I'm okay, Mills. Seriously." She hugged him up again and sighed while he drew her close too.

"Hopefully what you saw last night gives you an idea of what I was talking about, though." She leaned back then, meeting his blue eyes.

"Yes. He's dangerous. I knew that already. But, yes, I saw it last night." She agreed.

"And not the best company to be keeping, Milla." One of his dark brows raised as he looked down at her.

"I know you don't get it. But he's the only one I've ever met who's even remotely like me, Damon." Milla didn't need his permission, but she did hope for his understanding. He stepped away from her arms and headed down the hall, evidently assuming she would follow.

"I can see I'm going to need a drink for this." He murmured as he turned a corner, headed for the bar in the dining room.

She followed him and perched on the edge of the dining room table.

He drained the glass turned away and came back carrying the ice in the glass. He slid over next to her on the edge of the table, his feet planted in a chair he'd dislodged in the process.

"So you've become friends with Klaus." He was watching her face and didn't miss the flush that rose in her cheeks.

"Oh, God." He stood and made himself another drink, coming back to sit with her again carrying it with him.

"Sooooo you've become more than friends with Klaus." He amended, his tone casual, but his blue eyes, when she met them, were wide.

Milla narrowed her eyes on him and grinned. "Don't make it something dirty. And you know who he used to be. But he's becoming someone else."

Damon shook his head. "He is violent, cruel and smooth, Mills. You saw the violent and cruel last night. A consummate manipulator. How do you know that's not what he's done to everyone with all of this?"

Milla came back on him immediately. "Because he's the opposite of smooth now. He's awkward and uncertain. He tells the truth, says what he's thinking even when it doesn't fit. I think he has all these emotions coming at him at 90 miles an hour and no clue what to do with all of it. I know I'm young, Damon, but I do understand people, read them pretty well. Nobody could pretend this. If he was actually still that charming person, this would be humiliating for him."

"He's pretending to be exactly what would appeal to you, honey." Milla always had a soft spot for the underdog, the outcast. Damon had even teased her about it before.

"He can read people like a book. Ask Stefan. They became buddies during one of Stefan's killing sprees." He shook his head at her. "He probably got a read on you that first day."

Milla frowned, felt her own brows furrowing as she thought about what Damon was saying, taking it into consideration because she valued him and his opinion.

"Even if what you're saying is right, what would be the point of pretending with me?"

Damon grinned. "Please." He rolled his eyes when she shrugged at him, confused. "You're a hottie, honey. To get in your pants. He is a player, too."

Milla fired back again, saying more than she intended in her vehemence. "But he's the one that put the brakes on when…"

Damon shot up, putting both hands over his ears. "Oh, hell no! Don't you dare finish that sentence or so help me, I'll start blowing chunks."

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On the drive back to Richmond, Milla thought long and hard about what Damon had said. She thought of the pain she'd seen in Klaus when his humanity ran him over like a freight train. Details kept playing through her mind like the way his skin grew hot, the tears in his eyes. Elena said there were no tears when there was no humanity. She didn't tell Damon all of those details, but didn't see how Klaus could be pretending all of that. And, as far as Klaus playing her to get into bed with her, she didn't honestly believe that either because if he'd even tried it would already have happened probably.

Milla had not ever been with a man, but she'd been more than willing just last night. Her inexperience wasn't a matter of being prudish or planning it that way. For her, it had always been something she just had no real interest in. But that had changed with him. And quickly.

Damon just hated him. From what he'd said about the past, he might even have good reason. After last night, and the pounding Klaus gave him, the things that were said, clearly there was no love lost between the two of them.

They hadn't made plans, but Klaus appeared after sunset in the gardens that evening, just as he'd been doing. Milla sat on the same bench. His heart pounded when her amber eyes met his as he appeared, standing in front of her. This time he didn't have to hide what he wanted to do. If he was honest, he'd had this in mind since long before she introduced herself to him.

He took her hand, pulled her to standing and right into his arms wordlessly. Without stopping, he ducked his head and kissed her. She made a surprised sound and then sighed while he moved smoothly into his determined goal of kissing her senseless, the same way she'd done him the night before.

Her arms came up around him, locking at the back of his neck. And there it was, the same voltage he always found, coursing through him at her touch.

The kiss went on and on as he kept moving closer, delving deeper, drawn to get as close to her as possible. The real challenge was not to lose himself in it, too.

When he finally pulled away, she was gasping and her eyes were glazed.

_Yes. He could, in fact, kiss her senseless. _

He smiled broadly, nose to nose with her and said only, "Hello."

Milla let out a half gasping laugh. "I like the way you say hello."

"I have been wanting to do that for quite a while." He confided, speaking at a whisper, still holding her close.

"Think of all of those wasted hellos." She whispered back with a smile and he answered her with another kiss.

After a minute, he leaned back and braced his forehead against hers.

"You went to check on your friend today." The question was implied. He knew that Salvatore would heal. What he really wanted to know was how she was feeling about what had happened, and him.

"I did. Yes. He's okay now." He leaned back and watched her eyes move over his face slowly, carefully.

"And he has taught you to be cautious with me?" He'd been thinking all day of how that visit of hers would play out and the things Salvatore might say. Much of it would probably be true. He had no defense for that.

She shifted her eyes away from his face then, frustrating his efforts to understand what she was thinking. Those golden eyes focused instead on his mouth.

"Damon's not likely to start a fan club for you any time soon. But no. No caution from me. Not even close." To illustrate her lack of caution, she closed what little distance there was between them, went on tiptoe and kissed him again, leaving him the one breathless this time as he stood, holding her close.

Klaus froze abruptly in Milla's arms, jerked his head up, looking around at the house.

"What's wrong?" Milla whispered at him.

"Is Elijah here?"

Milla shook her blonde head at him. "No. He's been gone all day. Why?"

Klaus disappeared in a gust of wind leaving Milla baffled.

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Elena sat at the kitchen bar staring at the light reflected on the blackened windows of her kitchen, her hand balled to a fist. She turned eyes on Bonnie, who sat with her and watched the red rim to her eyes glow around her beloved friend's face. To stop her from doing what she wanted to with it, Elena smashed that balled fist into the marble counter top. It crumbled under the pressure with a snap. A jagged seam appeared in the counter, some of it crumbling to gravel as the supports under it buckled.

Her friend's face had paled, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"You say that you did it for me." She told Bonnie, her voice deepening with fury. "For the sake of my heart. But that's a lie. You did it for yourself. For your own twisted brand of justice, Bonnie. Because Elijah _is_ my heart. Will always be my heart." Elena forced herself to look away, because the red rim was starting to close.

"Just know that if you had killed him, there would have been no forgiveness." She turned and met her friend's eyes. "And nowhere you could've hid from me." Her words came out of gritted teeth.

"Do you want to know how often I have had nightmares of returning after that party to find him dead on my doorstep? Missed him and the chance to save his life?" She drew a breath, trying to calm herself. "Countless times in the last year."

"If you plan something like that ever again, you'd damned well better be ready to kill me too." She moved then, her nose next to Bonnie's. She watched the power gather in her friend's eyes. Elena didn't care.

"I will eventually forgive you for nearly killing him." Her eyes narrowed until everything was nearly red through her eyes. "But right now, if you want to live you should Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. House." The words were punctuated by an increasing volume that became a roar.

As she took a step closer, strong arms wrapped around her from behind, one under each arm and across each shoulder, immobilizing her. But Elijah wasn't home. Elena's red eyes clouded with confusion as she tipped her head back. Klaus. He was holding her, stopping her from ripping her friend apart in her anger. She pushed hard against him and shook. His grip loosened for a second against the strain.

Bonnie had also sprung up, taking a step back and looking confused.

"Out, witch! I will not be able to hold her for long." Klaus yelled at her as Bonnie ran for the door. "And she will never forgive herself if she hurts you."

Elena stood there, Klaus holding her back, as they heard Bonnie's car rush down the drive. The anger still burned, high and hot as she roared in frustration at him. He turned her swiftly in his arms, wrapping her up more securely. Her face against her brother in law's chest, she breathed deep.

"Little sister, do you remember our conversation in the park?" He asked her quietly. Elena had started to calm and she nodded.

"I asked you about how you came to love my brother. Told you that we did not usually garner such heartfelt loyalty. Do you remember?" Klaus was distracting her with his quiet words. She knew it, but she nodded again, feeling grateful for somewhere else to focus.

"Strength like ours can become a target over time. A threat or a challenge to the people around us that we care for. A barrier to their sense of justice or freedom that must be overcome." He drew her closer and ran a hand over her hair. "It appears you have entered those ranks now. It is a shame for one so young as you. And I am sorry for it." His voice was thick with regret for her.

Elena closed her arms around Klaus. She was calm again and had done no permanent harm. Thanks to him.

Elena sighed. "I am so glad you are here with us. Thank you. I love you, big brother."

"I love you back, little sister." Niklaus ducked his head and leaned his chin on the top of her head.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Elijah opened the door and walked through it to find Elena standing in Klaus' arms, her hands locked around his brother. His knee jerk reaction was a punch to the gut sensation, but thankfully he stopped and looked around before a sense of betrayal could take hold. The kitchen island was destroyed, the marble in pieces and the cabinet under it demolished. Klaus looked up, met his eyes and motioned for him to come close. He gently turned Elena into Elijah's arms.

"This belongs to you. Your wife needs you." Klaus stepped away and quietly went back out the door.

Elena was trembling and had yet to look up at him. He tried to get her to meet his eyes, but she tucked her face against him while covering it with both hands.

"What's happened?" He asked her gently, tucking her close.

"I almost killed Bonnie a few minutes ago." The words were muffled behind her hands. "He stopped me."

Elijah drew a deep breath.

"Are you alright?"

"Not yet. But I will be." She uncovered her face to wrap her arms around him, but stayed tucked against his chest. She was drawing slow, deep breaths.

"It was her. She tried to kill you." Her words were small and quiet.

"I know. I found out this morning. Told her I would have to tell you if she didn't."

"I confided in her. I didn't tell her much. But I trusted her and she tried to kill you for it." She shook her head against him.

He could see where this was going. "Don't even think of blaming yourself."

Elena sighed. "No. I know." She shook her head like she was shaking something off. "I can't think about it for long or I'll get angry again."

"Look at the bright side. You'll get that new kitchen now that you felt you couldn't justify before." He whispered it next to her ear and Elena laughed a little, turning her face up to him.

"You are my heart, Elijah." He sucked in a breath and leaned down to kiss her.

When he broke the kiss, he spoke against her lips. "And you are mine."

Klaus found Milla sitting alone again on the bench. She'd crossed her legs and was leaned back on one hand.

"I am sorry I left you like that." He told her as he sat beside her. She moved closer on the seat until they were hip to hip. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer still.

"Did I miss something?"

"Elena got angry. It can overwhelm us, like what you saw happen to me last night." Milla stiffened against him, turning to look up into his eyes.

"She's okay now?" Milla's tone was worried.

"Yes. Elijah is with her, now. She will be fine." He ran a hand over her shoulder to reassure her.

After a moment of silence, Milla said, "You make all of that sound a lot like my wolf."

"That is exactly what it is like." He agreed with a smile.

"You calmed her?"

"I stopped her. Then she started to calm down. I guess so." He shrugged it off.

Milla smiled up at him with admiration sparkling in her eyes. But he shook his head with a rueful smile. "I cannot take credit for anything. I only did what you have taught me by example, Milla."

"You don't give yourself _enough_ credit." Milla stood quickly and sat down again, this time on his lap. She put her arms around his neck and tucked her face next to his throat. "I think maybe you're wonderful."

Touched, Klaus welcomed the embrace, closing his arms around her. "And I think you are just very kind."

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For the next few days the time spent with Klaus consisted of Milla pulling small details out of him. She wanted to know everything. But he was hesitant to share. Her best tactic so far was to ask a question, wait for him to give her one word answers and distract him with kisses until he opened up. The more she knew about him, the more she wanted to know.

Milla learned that Klaus knew a lot about a lot. He admitted that he held boredom at bay for "a very long time" with research and study. Art, warfare, philosophy, literature, engineering, history, winemaking, weaponry, medicine….he had done what he called "dabbling" in all of them. He was careful not to mention dates or time frames, making her more aware that his age was something he was uncomfortable sharing.

It did make her smile when, during a discussion of literature that went way over her head, she asked him what he thought of Shakespeare. He grimaced at her.

"He was an excellent writer. And a complete ass." She watched his eyes widen as he realized what he'd unintentionally revealed. Milla laughed. She was asking about what he thought of Shakespeare's work. But Klaus had evidently known the man personally and not cared for him.

"You do know that I honestly don't care about how old you are, right?" She had moved to his lap, wrapping both arms around his neck and whispered it near his ear.

"You do not have the whole picture." He rumbled the words back at her, closing the embrace.

"And you think if I did have the whole picture I would…" She paused and moved to meet his eyes. Her answer was reflected in those denim blue depths. "You think I would be afraid of you."

He nodded, his eyes shifting away.

"Don't flatter yourself." She rolled her eyes and grinned at him. He made a derisive sound and she moved to hold him close again.

"Keep it then. But I can tell you here and now that I'll never be afraid of you."

"Everyone else is." The sentence was small and tight.

"Then everyone else doesn't see you clearly, or remembers the person you used to be." She leaned back and met his eyes.

"I _see you_." She told him, her nose meeting his. He kissed her breathless for that.

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Several nights later Klaus left Milla to her rest after a long run in the dark and headed back to his cabin. Rather than go inside, he kept going, moving into the woods behind it. Klaus didn't sleep anyway. It wasn't something he physically needed and he didn't find peace if he did try. He wandered among the trees for an hour or more, watching clouds move to cover the moon and obscure what had been a starry sky.

He sat, leaned against an ancient oak when he grew still and heard someone moving. He tipped his head back and drew in the scents around him. Milla.

A few seconds later she stepped out around a tree and spotted him. She wore her hiking boots and carried a folded blanket over her shoulder.

"I didn't feel like sleeping." She told him with a shrug.

"Neither did I." He told her.

She stopped in front of him and held out a hand. He took it and rose to stand next to her.

"There's a thunderstorm headed this way. I think I know a place we can watch the show." She told him.

They moved into the trees for another half hour before they came to a clearing and a sharp ledge that gave a clear view of the southwestern sky. They spread her blanket out together over some tall grass and sat together as a small purple flash appeared at the horizon.

She reached to take his hand, pointing. But he was just watching her, with the light from the sky reflected in her eyes. He had sat to watch hundreds of storms, so her excitement for it was something he couldn't match. But watching her profile as she wondered at the storm was the perfect view.

Milla turned to meet Klaus' gaze and the whole world froze for her. Those dark blue eyes were both intimate and tender, with lightning dancing there. Her heart stopped in her chest and refused to start up again for a breathless moment. She needed to be touching him when he looked at her that way.

She kissed him. He drew her close, delving deeply. Without any forethought at all, Milla leaned back, away from him and drew him down next to her on the blanket. She broke the kiss long enough to pull her shirt over her head and lean back again with him on the blanket.

Klaus was leaned up on one elbow and had grown still, just looking at her. She moved toward him and pulled him close in another kiss, this one more heated than the last. She kept going until she was flush with him, her body pressed against his from shoulder to toe tip. A hand moved over her shoulder, making her skin sizzle under it.

He broke the kiss, his lips near her ear. "Are you sure?"

For him, there would be no going back after this. His heart would be hers, but then again, it was probably a done deed anyway.

She looked up at him and nodded wordlessly.

He moved over her, a thumb and a finger working the clasp of her bra behind her. It was stripped away and he paused again, just looking.

"More beautiful than I remember." He whispered huskily to her.

Her hands moved over his side, working to strip his shirt over his head. Muscles in his back spasmed as her hands skimmed them, winding an electric path from his waist to his shoulders. His breath hissed from behind clenched teeth.

She unclasped her cutoff shorts and discarded them, too. He couldn't help but smile as he followed suit. Her honest eagerness, without any hint of practiced coyness, was as lovely as she was. He braced himself above her and looked down. Her body had the rhythmic flow of a fast current over a rocky stream.

He ran a hand from her shoulder, down across her waist, molding her breast as he went. A small feminine rumble hummed at him from the back of her throat and became a husky groan that echoed his own needs.

She shook, startled, as lighting flashed behind him, much closer than it had been before. Thunder rolled around them.

He paused, leaning near her ear. "Should we go inside?"

She met his eyes and smiled. "Definitely not."

His hands moved over her again, tanned supple skin rippled under his fingers. He followed them with his lips, moving slowly over her skin as she moved restlessly under him. When he kissed her breast, she gasped raggedly and looked up to meet his eyes.

Milla wound one her legs around both of his and he was caught off guard as she flexed and they were both pushed up off the ground together and flipped. His back slammed hard into the ground and she was hovering over him, concern on her face.

"Oh, my God. I'm so sorry." She was gasping, alarmed, in his ear. He stared wide eyed at the sky and started to laugh. Belly laughs from down deep shook him, body and soul.

He had been with women who also had unusual strength many times. But with the wariness he found in everyone around him, not one had ever displayed even a whisper of physical challenge in the bedroom. Not once. In all his years he'd never had a partner that met him in his bed unafraid and his equal. Until now.

Milla was like a young wolf cub, testing her strength and abilities every day. He could see she'd had no idea that would happen. But, rather than worrying about offending him, she was concerned that she'd hurt him. _She was adorable._

And perfect.

He wrapped both arms around her, holding her tight to his chest.

"Do not ever change." He whispered in her ear.

"Are you okay?" He could still hear concern in her husky voice.

He met her eyes, beaming. "I am more than okay. And you, my girl, are perfect." He could see she was confused, so he kissed her rather than explain.

She broke the kiss after a few seconds. "Wait. I had a plan."

She moved to one side and leaned down with her hands moving over him. And she was talking to him all the while.

"You see," Small fingers trailed across his abdomen and he drew a quick breath under the sheer voltage again. "I've been thinking about doing this for weeks."

Those fingers traced across his collar bone, following a smooth line of muscle. He closed his eyes, lost in sensation.

"I have seen dozens of naked male bodies..." His eyes shot open, but she was smiling at him. She had been slyly watching for his reaction. "during full moons at home since I was a child." She leaned down and pressed her lips to a spot just below his rib cage and he gasped, finding it difficult to follow what she was saying. "But never once has it occurred to me to do this, until you."

Milla was a witch creating chaos in him with her words, her hands and her mouth. She trailed slow open mouth kisses across his chest and started to move lower. When she reached the dip of muscle just above his hip bone he couldn't take any more.

He pulled her close and flipped with her this time, but gently, until he was over her again.

"Much more of that and this will be over too quickly." His voice was husky and tight.

Her hands moved slowly again over his back and it arched on its own.

"Awwww, God." He groaned.

In that moment the sky opened up around them with a torrent of rain soaking them both immediately. He froze, expecting she would want to make a run for it, but she wrapped her legs around his waist and drew him closer in a warm sweet welcoming embrace.

He moved swiftly, the two of the fused together as he met a whisper of resistance and froze again. Milla had tensed and gasped.

"Milla?"

"It's okay." She whispered and was slowly moving under him.

Klaus could smell fresh blood. He wanted to stop, to hold her, apologize for being too rough. But she kept moving and he was captive again, moving with her as the rain pelted them.

She held him hostage as her body rippled around him. His back arched again as she carried them both over the edge into ecstasy.

Milla gasped, trying to catch her breath when they grew still. Klaus stood quickly, because the rain was coming down even harder and lighting was flashing more closely. Thunder pounded out a rhythm all its own. He gathered their clothes and the blanket in one hand. He pulled her up to his chest with his free arm.

"Hang on and close your eyes." He told her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.

A few seconds later he opened the door of his cabin and let her slide to the floor.

She swayed for a moment and he held her still while she got her bearings.

"You forgot to close your eyes." She only nodded. Milla was dizzy, but it would fade.

Klaus grabbed a towel quickly and dried her off where she stood. When he was done, he carried her to his bed, tucking her into the warmth.

After a minute with her eyes closed, she said, "Are you coming?" Her hand stretched out to the empty space beside her.

Klaus smiled to himself and joined her under the covers.

"I do not use this very much." He admitted. The bed felt strange and foreign to him.

Milla rolled into him slowly, her eyes still closed. "Where do you sleep?"

"I usually do not sleep. We do not require it. Sleep is a luxury for us."

Milla rolled to her back and wrapped an arm under and behind him, pulling him close with it. He laid his head on her shoulder.

"One you can't afford?" She whispered, finally turning to meet his eyes.

"Not so much." Not in decades. When he closed his eyes, rather than peace, he found memory lane, even before his humanity was restored. A few nights spent reliving every horror and every loss was enough for him to give up on the idea entirely.

"Will you just lie here with me, then, for a few minutes until the world stops spinning?" She pressed smooth pink lips to his brow.

"Of course." He laid an arm across her.

"Why did you not tell me that would be your first time?" He had been rough with her in his ignorance. Klaus felt she deserved better and there was no way to undo it.

"Because it wasn't that important. I also knew that if I had told you, it wouldn't have happened." She whispered, turning her lips to the top of his head.

She was right. He would never have touched her if he had known.

"How could it be unimportant? You waited much longer than most do." He was genuinely baffled.

"I only waited because it held no interest for me. Until I met you."

They both grew quiet while the storm outside continued to rage around them. Thunder rumbled and hard rain pelted the windows.

Her hand moved over his hair slowly, a warm comfort that made him close his eyes. The voltage of her touch became a quiet hum along his scalp. Small fingers wound their way to the nape of his neck and he sighed quietly against her, Milla's last words echoing in his mind.

_Until I met you._

Hours later Klaus opened his eyes to sunlight shining through a high window illuminating his face. He stretched a hand across the bed and found nothing. Emptiness.

Milla was gone. She must've woke and left earlier; careful not to wake him too. He smiled to himself, thinking of how considerate that was. He would much rather have her here, but the quiet kindness he saw in the gesture was all Milla.

His eyes widened as he looked at the time. It was two o'clock in the afternoon. He had slept for twelve hours. Twelve hours of peace in her arms. He sat up, putting a hand over his chest as his heart tried to break free again from his breastbone. He slept, rested, and found peace next to her.

Feeling driven, he showered and dressed, setting out to go see her. He closed the distance between his cabin and the house quickly and stood on the porch to ring the bell.

Elijah opened the door and Klaus met his eyes and smiled.

"I am looking for Milla." He told his brother.

Elijah's brows furrowed. "I'm sorry. She didn't tell you?" Elijah's eyes moved over Klaus' face slowly. "I guess not. She's gone. She left for the airport an hour ago."

Elijah paused and looked at his watch. "The plane should be taxiing any minute now."

Klaus' heart had stopped. A slow horrified flush of anger swept over him. "No."

Klaus turned and ran. He set off at top speeds for the private airport he knew Elijah used that was about twenty miles away. Fury pushed him even faster than he usually went.

Milla had come, spent the night with him and walked away without a word. He skidded to a halt in the grassy median of an interstate, his hand over his chest as the actual physical pain of that struck him. She had used him. He leaned forward, his hands on his knees, breathing deep.

The quiet voice of reason rose up in him. What he was thinking was inconsistent with her character. It couldn't be true. Milla was unlike any woman he had ever known. Any one of them would've done just what he was quietly accusing Milla of in a heartbeat with no remorse. But not her.

He set off again. He had to find her. Stop her if he could. There had to be an explanation.

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Elijah stood leaning against the doorframe of his still open door smiling in the direction his brother had disappeared.

Elena appeared beside him. "What are you up to with that smile?"

His eyes moved over her warmly. "I am meddling."

Elena grinned. "You are terrible."

"Completely terrible, and you love me anyway." He told her as he closed the door again, following her to the living room.

Milla had returned that morning after Elijah had already noted that her bedroom door was open and the bed was untouched. She had passed him in the hall on the way to the shower with a smile, but Klaus' scent was all over her. Elijah knew that could only mean one thing. Milla had spent the night with his brother.

During her stay, he had noticed that she was at their home less and less. He had wondered about her absences, which were unusual. But had settled for telling himself that it was none of his business and that she was an adult.

But _his brother_, Milla was involved with _his brother_.

His first horrified reaction had shifted, though. Klaus was not the person he had been even six months ago. That Klaus involved with Milla would have resulted in a full on brawl. This Klaus, with his open heart and lovingkindness might actually deserve her.

Opportunity had presented itself when he opened the door just now, to see his brother's feelings for himself and he had taken it with both hands. He wasn't disappointed. Klaus' horror spoke volumes.

_And, after all,_ Elijah reasoned, _there wasn't a single word of what I told Klaus that wasn't true._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

By the time Klaus reached the airport, his storm of fury had blown itself out. Gone was the need to injure as he was injured. Now he just hoped for the chance to see her one last time. There were things he needed to say.

He stopped to press the heel of his hand to his chest and draw deep breaths. On a normal day, he was impervious to pain, but he'd acquired an ache in his chest he couldn't ease.

The black convertible car Milla had been driving was backed into a space in the small parking lot of the private airport. He blew a sigh of relief when he saw that she was sitting there and appeared to be waiting, her blonde hair shining like a beacon in a sea of drab gray concrete.

Moving to the car, he sat flat on the pavement with his back braced against the driver's side door. Knees bent, he wrapped one hand each around them and took a deep breath, leaning his head against the door and closing his eyes.

This would be easier if he didn't look at her and she didn't touch him.

He heard her shift in her seat and attempt to open the door.

"No. Just stay there. Please." He told her quietly without looking up or opening his eyes.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her husky voice sounding concerned.

Everything was wrong. The pain in his chest hit a crescendo at the sound of her voice. This was what he had to look forward to. The heel of his hand moved reflexively against his breastbone as he drew another deep breath.

"On my way over here, I was furious. Thinking of half a dozen things I could say to you, after last night." His voice caught with the last words and they came out strangled.

He'd hoped their night together would mark a beginning, not an end. But she'd evidently come looking only for a swansong to end her stay. He'd known from that first kiss that she wanted him, but he'd had high hopes of it becoming more. But their time was done, now. He refused to feel embarrassed or ashamed of what he'd hoped for.

"But now that I am here, I do not want to say any of those things to you." He turned and met her eyes as she looked down at him from the open car window. Her amber eyes were wide and accompanied by a small ripple of concern between her brows as she looked at him.

"I don't understand."

"I know. I will explain." He leaned his head back again and closed his eyes.

"You should know that when you get on that plane, Milla, you will be taking my heart with you." He said it simply, laying said heart at her feet. He steeled himself not to look back as he said it. He didn't believe she would purposely trample it, but seeing her search for a way to let him down easy wasn't a sight he wanted to remember when he thought of her in the years to come.

"I told myself I wouldn't speak of it. That I would be grateful for what time I had with you. But after last night…." His words became strangled again and he drew another deep breath.

"I think I lost it to you before we even met. Before your wreck. Before I really even had a heart to give you. Elijah had a picture of you on his phone and I was prying. Your expression…." He paused and swallowed hard. "The affection….that loving smile for whoever snapped the photo…probably Elijah. I could not get it out of my mind. The label on the photo had your name. I came back a few days later to look for your information. Because you could not possibly be as beautiful as that photo in real life."

He turned and met her eyes for a moment before he looked away again. "I was wrong."

"When you introduced yourself to me, you thought you recognized me. That is because I followed you for most of the day of your wreck. You turned and looked in my direction more than once. At the coffee shop, at the book store, at the diner where you and your friend had milkshakes. I was there, watching. I could not seem to help myself. I meant no harm. I was just fascinated with you."

He'd been enthralled, actually. Her husky laugh, the way she focused on her friend completely one moment and cast her eyes his direction curiously the next. The way she moved, her golden hair flowing rhythmically behind her with each step and every laugh like ripe wheat caught in the wind.

"When your wreck happened, I was following on that abandoned road and you should not have known. It was dark and I was staying far away. But you turned and looked me squarely in the eyes, even over the distance. That was when all hell broke loose." He shook his head, trying to dispel the memory of the horror he'd felt when that car left the road and started to flip.

"When the car came to a stop, I came close, concerned for you. You looked up at me and growled, anger rolling off of you. You ripped the crumpled door off with both hands and shifted to come after me. I wanted to just stand and wonder at you, but you had blood in your eye. And rightly so. The last thing I wanted was to hurt you in a fight, too, so I turned away and you gave chase."

"You very nearly caught me once, which is saying something." He smiled up at her for a moment, proud of her strength.

"After I could not let it go. Could not get you out of my head." He shook his head because it hurt to remember. "And one day you came wandering around the pool to introduce yourself to me. No sooner did I regain my heart with my humanity, than I watched you steal it from me. You. A sunrise, clothed in the wind, took my heart from my chest and made me glad to lose it."

So many nights spent in darkness, without even a glimpse of the sun. It was no wonder that he would come to love her. Even he, though, wasn't fool enough to honestly believe that a sunrise would love him back. Klaus drew a ragged breath before he went on.

"I know you have to go. You have a life somewhere else. And you did not tell me you were leaving today probably because you were trying to save my feelings, or some such thing. But you have to know….more than nine hundred years and I have never felt this depth, this need to give like I do with you. I have no expectations and make no demands."

Centuries of taking were behind him and had gained him nothing. Now, given the chance, he'd give her everything, all he was, all he had; show her the whole world and find joy in seeing it through her eyes. But that wasn't a chance he was going to get.

Niklaus leaned his head back against the smooth car door and took a calming breath before he turned and met her eyes.

"I just love you." He told her, his eyes moving slowly over her face to commit it to memory.

When Klaus turned and met her eyes, Milla saw the familiar tenderness she'd seen before.

That expression, the way his eyes moved over her…she had seen it before, many times. The day he was in the pool and she told him he'd shattered her illusions. The day they walked the driveway and his absent humanity came roaring at him. The night they ran together into the forest for the first time. Sitting across from her at dinner gazing at her over a glass of red wine. Meeting her eyes as they made love in the rain. That light in his eyes was love. _All this time._

He sounded so broken that Milla couldn't sit anymore.

He had turned away again, but he still blocked the door, so she shimmied out the car window and landed with both feet in front of him. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around him.

"I love you, too." She whispered it next to his ear and his arms came up around her, his eyes going wide. Milla moved in close and kissed him, leaned between his bent knees.

He returned her kiss, and stopped, leaned back and searched her face before returning to the kiss again. His eyes moving uncertainly over her face all the while.

"I know you are young. Minds can change, hearts shift…" His voice was thick as he leaned back again.

"It's not sudden, Klaus. I have felt this way from that first moment you laughed at me. It just took a little while for me to understand."

"But you said nothing." His hands were at either side of her face while he leveled his eyes on her, like he was trying to force truth from her.

"I thought I was too young and you wouldn't want me. That you'd think I was a child." The words tumbled out of her because he didn't seem to believe it.

His eyes flickered and she saw heat in them again for a second, like last night. "A child? Hardly."

His expression shifted to a grimace, still unsure. "I thought this was some karmic debt I was paying, loving you. You are much too good for me. I _know_ I am too old, without doubt. And you have to go…."

"You are beautiful and flawed and perfect for me." She told him. His hands still on her face, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his again.

"And I'm not leaving today." She said when she leaned back.

"But, Elijah said…" His eyes went wider.

"I'm here to pick up my dad. I guess his plane is late." She was smiling at him, letting him see her feelings reflected in her eyes.

She leaned over and kissed him, framing his face with her hands.

"When Dad gets here, we should probably keep the nine hundred thing between the two of us at first, okay?" Milla was talking fast again, hoping he wouldn't feel like she was asking him to be dishonest. She would already have an uphill battle on her hands with her father for the simple fact that he looked _thirty_ and she was eighteen. Much less dealing with the true reality, with her father, of their actual age differences.

He smiled and nodded before he grew thoughtful again.

"To be precise, I was born in 1036. So slightly more than nine hundred." His eyes had narrowed a little, watching her face for a reaction.

But Milla didn't even stop to do the math. Instead, her heart in her eyes again, she leaned her forehead to his. The two of them met there, in the silence and she watched him close his eyes as peace moved over him.

"I love you." She told him again and kissed him, her hand moving slowly over his whiskered jaw.

When she broke the kiss, Klaus leaned back and chuckled quietly to himself.

"What are you thinking?"

"My brother is a schemer."

"Yeah. He really is." She grinned. "He told you I was leaving today?"

Klaus grinned, too. "He very much implied it and I did not stop to ask questions."

"He tends to let things he didn't actually say speak for him."

"There you go being clever again." His eyes flashed the now familiar warmth at her.

Klaus loved her. Had loved her all along. Milla's heart sang with quiet joy. It was too new to worry about what this would look like when it did actually come time for her to go home. She didn't have the courage to think about it. Right now she just wanted to bask in what she now knew was love shimmering over her in dark denim blue eyes.

Just as he'd expected, spending the night with her had bound him to her even more than before. But he'd believed her heart was still tucked away safely out of his reach.

All of the searching, building, taking for himself had gained him nothing of real value. But today, he had laid his heart at Milla's feet _and she offered hers in return._ The wonder of it left him feeling wide eyed like a child. Giving rather than taking was the answer for how to live this life.

Milla loved him, from that first meeting.

No sooner had she spoken, though, than his accusations against Elena came back to haunt him. He'd worked to convince Elijah more than a year ago that because of Elena's youth that her heart would be inconstant. That the young are naturally easily changeable in matters of the heart. But he'd been proven completely wrong by Elena. He decided he would hope that Milla, like Elena, would prove the exception to the rule.

She hadn't even blinked when he told her his true age, the words rushing out of him before he could remember caution. But, true to her word, she honestly didn't care. Not even a little. There was no wariness in that loving heart of hers, and he'd bet his life there never would be.

Before his humanity was restored, fear and respect were synonymous in his mind. But now, he knew better. Looking back, he could see that fear defined all of his relationships until now. And he had gloried in it. That was not how he would to live his life going forward and this, she, was the first step.

The two of them sat on the rough pavement caught up in each other for a long while. Milla, finally noticing that she'd been waiting for more than two hours for her father called Elijah to ask if the plane was delayed somehow. After a phone call to the flight crew, Elijah found that the plane had landed just as scheduled and was preparing to take off again, headed for their home base.

Jack had been on the plane when it landed, but had never exited the terminal where Milla waited for him. She tried repeatedly to call him but it kept going directly to voicemail. Going to security, Milla found that there was security cam footage of her father in the building being intercepted by four men she didn't recognize. They had accompanied him to the men's room and never come out. When security found a broken window in the corner bathroom, Milla's concern for her father reached maximum overload.

She followed his scent from the broken window and it disappeared in a back parking lot. Tracking was useless when it came to closed vehicles. More security camera footage found a nondescript black SUV had been parked in the place where her father last stood. The license plates were never visible on camera.

Someone had taken her father against his will and left them with no viable options for finding him. All of it made zero sense, Milla decided as the tears started to flow.

Klaus gently pried the car keys from her nerveless fingers. He held her hand while he drove her back to Elijah's home, his mind working options to help her find her father. Her father was the last of her family. Silent tears streaking down her face told him all he needed to know.

"I can bring Elijah back here. He is the best at tracking. He might be able to tell us something about the men that took your father." He told her as he squeezed her hand.

She nodded, looking out the window, the tears unchecked as they ran down her face.

"He's never sent me here alone before. I should've known something was up." Milla shook her head. "And the last few times I've talked to him, he's always sounded so….harassed, hurried. I don't know. Something's been wrong this whole time and I didn't see it."

He reached and turned her chin in his direction. "We will find him, Milla. I promise you. This will all be fine."

She smiled through her tears and took his hand, turning it over to kiss the back of it.

"I know. I believe you." The trust in her eyes shone like a beacon to him, brighter even than her silvery tears.

Niklaus promised himself then and there that he'd kill with his bare hands whoever had caused those tears.

He returned an hour later with Elijah and they reviewed the security camera footage again. Three steps into the men's room Elijah turned and met his eyes.

"Weres. It was werewolves that took him. Five separate scents that are all Were, one of them I recognize as Jack." He moved toward the window and found a spot of blood on the window sill with the broken glass they'd missed before.

"Jack's blood. He was drugged when he bled here." Elijah said after a moment.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Hours later, the sun long set in the sky, Niklaus found Milla perched on one of the rocking chairs on the front porch of his cabin. He'd left her at Elijah's to return to the airport, but when he came back found that she had left. She was waiting patiently for him here instead. Her shoulders were bent and her lean body was drawn tightly with tension, making her appear smaller.

"I was restless." She told him as he mounted the steps. Milla rose and stepped into his arms.

"I am glad you are here." He told her, moving close and hovering near her mouth before he kissed her.

"Elijah says those men were Weres." He told her when he leaned back.

Milla drew a deep breath of surprise and seemed frozen in place at the news. He watched her mind working through the information, her eyes wide.

Finally, she said, "I can't imagine what they would want from Dad."

He pulled her close, tucking her to his shoulder, hanging on tightly.

"I have put feelers out. I know a lot of people and we will locate him. I promise." Reassuring words rushed out of him, hoping to calm her.

He took her hand and led her inside. Sitting on the couch, he gathered her across his lap and held her close, running soothing hands over her back and shoulders while she had legs draped over the couch and her arms wrapped around his chest.

She had been a bundle of worry and tension when he found her waiting on the porch. After only a few minutes, she was calm and relaxed in his arms.

"You, my girl, will leave this to me." He whispered to her as she breathed deeply. She nodded against him, her eyes drifting closed.

Milla woke hours later on the couch in Klaus' cabin all alone. Her arms were wrapped firmly around a pillow and she smiled. It had been him she'd been wrapped around when she fell asleep. She turned and found that early morning light was beaming through the windows. If she had to guess, he'd probably held her for a long while as she slept and substituted the pillow when he had to leave.

Her phone buzzed at her from the end table where he'd left it.

It was a text from Elena. _**Come back to the house.**_

Milla gathered her phone and her keys, headed out after only a breath for the car.

Elena met her at the front door, her dark eyes concerned as they moved over her face.

"You're going to have to stay calm. Can you do that?" Her voice was a whisper, her brows furrowed.

Milla nodded tightly. "What's happened?"

"Klaus found your father. Jack's upstairs. But he's in rough shape, honey." Milla pushed past Elena and headed for the stairs at a run.

She found him in the bed he usually slept in when they stayed here. He was pale and sweat stood out on his face. Dark circles wrapped around eyes that were closed. With her first steps into the room she smelled the infection.

_Silver._

If silver was left in a wound for their kind it set up rapid infection. His arm was partially untucked and she saw a ghost of a shadow along his forearm. Pulling the cover back without disturbing him, she found dark streaks that ran nearly up to his elbow around a bullet wound in his wrist. A fresh bandage suggested the bullet had just been removed.

Milla bit back a gasp and moved to the other side of the bed. The other wrist was the same. Moving to the foot of the bed she found his ankles were in the same condition. Silver bullets had been shot into his wrists and ankles, the shots fired against a solid surface so that the bullet remained lodged. Torture. Weres had tortured her father and nearly killed him. After only a few hours, the infection would spread, leaving the streaks that wrapped around all of his limbs. Once those dark tracks reached his heart or his head he'd be gone.

Jack made a sound, a gasp and a cough, and amber eyes opened.

"Millicent?" Her given name was only a whisper in what had always been a deep booming voice to her. He seemed frail and small now. It made her chest hurt.

"Daddy. I'm here." She stepped close and laid a hand on his face, blinking back unshed tears.

"I didn't tell them." He gasped, drew a deep breath and turned to press a kiss to her hand. After a second he blinked like he wasn't sure if she was real.

"Tell who, Daddy?" She asked, fighting tears.

Jack drew another halting breath. "Jamie." The name was a breathy gasp.

Milla's heart let out a silent roar of fury. Jamie had been her father's Beta for twenty years. When he stepped down, Jamie became Alpha of the pack. Her father's best friend had done this. The wolf inside her clamored for control. With all of her might, she pushed it down.

His eyes had drifted closed again. Shaking, Milla reached to touch his face again and his eyes opened.

"What did they want from you, Daddy?"

Amber eyes met hers again. "You."

Milla's hands shook as the wolf roared to life inside her. Turning, fearing what she would destroy, or who, she ran with everything in her, pushing past Elena who had been standing in the doorway unnoticed.

Milla went sprinting down the stairs taking them three at a time, but Klaus, emerging from the shower saw her intention. He jumped the railing so quickly no one saw and was standing blocking the door when she reached it. Her eyes had gone completely golden, with only a tiny pinprick of a black iris in the middle, the way her wolf's eyes looked when she stood in the light.

When she spoke it was a low, inhuman rumble still contained by her voice, for now. "Move, or I will hurt you." Klaus could see she was fighting for control.

"If you need to do damage, do it to me. I can take it. But there is no scenario where I let you walk out that door." Her eyes met his and she was gasping, a growl building in her chest.

"I don't want to hurt you of all people. But I have to get out of here. If I bite you…or anyone…" She shook her head as the growl deepened to a roar.

"If you lose control and bite me…nothing. Nothing happens. I am immune." Her eyes swung to meet his and he saw a glimpse of her instead of the wolf in her surprise.

"You have to think clearly. He will recover. And he took being drugged and tortured to protect you. Managed not to give away your location under all of that. You cannot just run out after them, delivering yourself to their doorstep. Do not let his strength and sacrifice for you be wasted."

Klaus stepped close and wrapped both arms around her. She went instantly still but remained stiff. He leaned against the crown of her hair, propping his cheek there and ran a single hand over her back slowly. The rumbles became gasps of air and her breathing began to slow after a few minutes.

"I will kill every last one of them and lay them at your feet as a gift if you want. But I will not lose you to this, to them."

She closed her arms around him then, finally leaning in, accepting the comfort he was offering.

After several minutes of silence, Milla leaned up and kissed him, making him forget about Weres, threats or even where they were standing. A pointed throat clearing from the hall made him freeze after a second try. He broke the kiss, his nose next to Milla's ear.

"I think the cat is out of the bag." He whispered.

They had never planned to keep their relationship a secret, it had just happened that way. But Milla covered her mouth with one hand to smother a shy smile as he wove an arm around her shoulders.

They turned together to find Elena and Elijah both standing in the hall at the foot of the stairs wearing contradictory expressions. Elena looked horrified and Elijah was smiling broadly. Elena turned to look to Elijah for support and swatted his arm with a groan at his expression.

Elijah raised both hands in surrender, addressing Elena, "What can I, of all people, say? I was recently reminded that I was following a sixteen year old you around like a lovesick puppy not so very long ago." He turned with a shrug and walked wordlessly back up the stairs to the sound of quiet laughter from Milla and Klaus.

Elena, still flushed from Elijah's comment, fought a smile as she pointed a finger at Klaus.

"Don't you hurt her." He pulled a straight face, met her eyes and nodded.

She then turned the same expression on Milla.

"Don't you hurt him." Milla mirrored Klaus' expression and nodded too.

"And both of you keep in mind that you'll continue to be family even if this…whatever it is…ends. Because family doesn't." Her eyes moved between the two of them as the humor faded and they both nodded again.

Milla turned and kissed Klaus on the cheek.

"You're good at that. Thank you." She hugged him quickly and headed back up the stairs to sit with her father.

Elena stepped aside as she passed, her dark eyes watching Klaus' face. When Milla was gone, Elena came to stand in front of him.

"She's right, you know. No one's ever been able to calm her except her father. And that was a full blown wolf-out you just stopped." She tipped her head up and dark eyes moved over him again.

"I love her." Klaus admitted with a shrug.

Elena was quiet for a moment, absorbing that. "It seems she loves you, too."

He only nodded once and shrugged again.

"You're clearly good for one another." Elena turned, heading toward the kitchen shaking her head in wonder. Klaus watched Elena's retreating back.

"My fate was sealed even before she wrecked her car." He admitted quietly and Elena spun.

She smiled up at him as she said, "I guess that explains a lot."

"I just want you to know that this is not some game I am playing with her heart." He told her, hoping to make her understand just a little of him. He knew that Elena was protective of her god daughter and he respected that.

Elena smile deepened. "I know you well enough now to know you'd never do that. But thank you."

Klaus' chest burned at the trust he read in Elena's eyes. He hoped one day to deserve it and would do anything in that moment not to betray it.

A few hours later Milla took the cool rag and wiped her father's brow. He looked exhausted and the fever hadn't let up yet completely, even though the silver was gone. His eyes were red rimmed and sweat beaded up on his face but he was more aware than he had been before.

Her father was her hero and Jamie had nearly broken him. Cold fury made a home in her chest. Getting her teeth wrapped around the people responsible became her silent focus.

Elena came to stand with Elijah who had been pushing Jack for information about what he heard or could remember. Her father, a little stronger, was explaining what he knew.

"Ten packs have united. They've decided they want Milla after all, but not as an equal. They just want her. Her strength, her freedom. Their goal is to come for her. To test her, steal from her, breed her and take her apart. They stole the flight plan, I guess, of your jet, and were waiting when I got off the plane." The room filled with wind and Klaus was standing by Elijah at the foot of the bed with his arms crossed, his blue eyes hard.

Milla watched her father's eyes go wide, his frail body tensed at the newcomer.

Jack was struck squarely with a flash of memory beyond the drugs and pain that felt like it went on forever. He remembered hearing grown men scream. The warehouse he'd been kept at had echoed with the sounds of them. He was still tethered hand and foot to the concrete floor, but the sound of the splatter of blood was unmistakable even if he couldn't see the source.

Jack had seen six men through the whole ordeal. The only one he'd recognized was Jamie and he'd been the one holding the gun, firing the shots one at a time into him trying to force out Milla's location. But that had been hours ago and Jamie was long gone.

He had braced himself when all went quiet to be relieved of his misery by whatever had killed the others. Instead, a tall figure covered mostly in blood had appeared at his side, broken the thick chains that held him with one hand and Jack was lifted up. The next thing he knew he was at Elena's home in a warm bed.

He studied the blonde stranger standing next to Elijah. The profile he'd seen in the dark was the same.

"That was you." Jack said, addressing the stranger.

The man, who was probably not really a man, only nodded once, his lips a thin white line.

Jack blew a sigh of relief. He had been a little worried he'd hallucinated the whole thing.

"Thank you." He paused to meet blue eyes. "And I'm glad you're on my side."

The stranger smiled but remained silent.

Still seated next to her father, Milla took one of his fingers, to avoid touching his wounds.

"Dad, this is Klaus." The least she could do, she decided, was introduce them. "He's Elijah's brother."

Her father's eyes went wide moving between Klaus and Elijah. She could almost read his mind from his expression. _Oh, God. There's two of them._

But Milla wasn't done. Even though the room was full, her dad needed to understand the truth, that there was more here than met the eye.

"He's also my…" Her voice trailed off. They hadn't discussed any of that. The future, commitment, roles. Words flashed through her mind to finish that sentence and some of them made her want to cringe. _Lover? Boyfriend? Man? Mate?_ She didn't know which one applied and looked up into Klaus' eyes to find him smiling warmly down at her.

Klaus' eyes spoke for him where her words had failed her. He stepped close and held out a hand to her father.

He said, "I am Niklaus. And she has it right. I am hers. I will be to your daughter whatever she will allow me to be."

Jack took Klaus' hand with one of his bandaged ones and shook it solemnly before he turned and gave Milla the -_we will talk later- _look she knew so well_. _Milla was smiling though, and couldn't seem to stop. They were facing a nightmare and she was smiling like an idiot.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A day later Milla sat with her father watching over him like an avenging angel. The cold fury in her heart hadn't faded, but rather it had grown and taken deep root. The anger didn't force her to change, but it made her want blood. The betrayal she saw in what Jamie had done was the worst part and she vowed to herself that she would kill him for it.

Jamie was a little taller than she was, with long blonde hair he wore in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. In her memories she'd never noted any changes that could be called aging. He had always looked about twenty five. He was kind and funny throughout her entire childhood. Jamie had been a fun loving sort of uncle, much like Damon had always been.

But as she grew into a young woman, the look in Jamie's eyes had changed. Gone was the humor. Instead she found someone she didn't like to be alone with. He stood too close, laughed too loud and held her hand too long. Eyes that had laughed with her before now held a hunger she didn't understand.

When her curse activated, he had stepped up like it was something he'd been waiting for. He told her he wanted her and expected she would obey. As if she had no choice in the matter. The other females in the pack freely choose their own mates, but she, as the daughter of the Alpha would do what she was told.

Not long after she told him to go to hell, the pack decided to shun her. The shunning had prevented her having to tell her father about Jamie and his intentions. At the time, she'd been grateful to avoid a confrontation between her father and his best friend over her. Just the thought had made her shudder with dread.

Her father stirred and opened his eyes, turning to meet her gaze.

"You look furious, little girl." Jack told her with a small smile.

"I'm going to kill him, Dad." Milla was starkly honest. They had each other's back and that couldn't happen with dishonesty. He'd instilled that in her over many years.

Jack smiled and nodded, knowing instantly who she meant. "Not if I can get up out of this bed and do it myself." The problem with that was it might be a week or two.

She stood then, arranging his pillow so he could sit up. Using his hands was still painful for him.

"He won't last long enough for that." Milla whispered as she pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Jack only nodded again. It was their way. Balance, justice, an eye for an eye. Weres didn't have police or judges. Packs became judge and jury, with the Alpha as executioner with the final say in matters of crime and punishment.

Milla was going to override all of that, a blood price for the torture Jamie inflicted on her father. As his only family, it was her right.

Even Jack saw the justice in it and wouldn't try to stop her. He had every confidence that she was stronger than the new Alpha, many times over.

It was normal for a Were to become physically stronger even in human form as the full moon approached. For Milla, because she wasn't bound by the moon, that extra strength was always present and amplified, just as her wolf was. The vampire blood Elena had given her all those years ago had taken a deep hold over her body as it repaired her genetic material. They didn't really know the limits of what Milla would be capable of, but she was much stronger than any other Were Jack had ever seen and it appeared to be a permanent situation.

Jack had been forced to replace the screen door at their home more than once as it came off in her hands from her just trying to open it after her curse roared to life. He'd told her at the time it had been loose to keep her from getting upset. But the deep screws that had been sunk into wood and metal being pulled clean from the door frame worked in Jack's mind as a valid illustration of her potential strength.

He had kept his suspicions to himself because her training was being closely monitored by other members of the pack and he knew the alarm bells that would have gone off if they knew what he did. And he'd been proven right….many times over.

He was immensely proud of Milla. Of her strength and freedom, as well as her heart. Milla had walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death at a young age and emerged something new that none of them understood. He saw no limits to what she was capable of.

_A prouder father had never drawn breath. That he knew for sure. Of course the others wanted her. But they couldn't have her. Over his dead body. _

"Tell me about this Niklaus." Solemn amber eyes moved over her and noted the determination in the set of her jaw at his question. He carefully patted the bed beside him motioning for her to sit.

Milla already knew they were alone in the house, otherwise speaking freely wouldn't be an option.

She smiled as she sat with him, letting her eyes reflect her heart.

"He is good and honorable. Like you. And I love him, Dad." She laid a hand on his, careful of his bandages.

"He's not our kind. One bad moment with you might kill him. Like a human sleeping next to a rattlesnake. You see how this isn't a good idea, don't you?" He meant that their bite was poisonous to vampires, which usually prevented a mix of the two races.

"That's where you're wrong." She turned and carefully lifted one of his hands to drape across her knee. "He's different. He's both. The only one of his kind. He's immune to my bite, Dad and he has a wolf of his own – even bigger than mine."

Jack sat back, surprised by that revelation.

Milla saw in his face, though, that he was still searching for a way to convince her this was a mistake.

"He's too old for you." Jack crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw set.

"How much older were you than my mother again?" Milla asked him with a smile. She already knew the answer. In years he'd been sixty two, although he'd looked thirty or so at the time. Her mother had only been twenty and had never activated her curse that anyone knew of.

"That's different." One of his dark brows rose at her.

Milla drew a deep breath. She didn't want to argue her father, especially now, when he was weak and recovering.

"You know I've never been one to go around with my heart on my sleeve. No boyfriends, no dates. And I've always been satisfied with that." She turned and rested her head on his shoulder as she went on.

"But now…I love him. And he loves me, Dad. I don't know where it'll lead. I don't have to yet. Can't you just be happy for me? Please?"

Jack gingerly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and blew a deep sigh.

"I guess I always knew this day would come. I just hoped it would be later. You'd be older. Much older….like forty." His words were a familiar grumble and she knew he was hearing her, on the path to accepting it.

"You know, if he's Elijah's brother, he's got to be hundreds of years old." Jack whispered at her, aware that there was always a chance of being overheard in this house.

"I know. I don't care." She told him and leaned up to kiss his cheek.

Jack sighed heavily again. "Well, at least I know he can keep you safe. He tore through them last night like a tornado through a trailer park."

Milla laughed. Although he didn't realize it, his words were high praise. Her dad loved storms. They spent many an hour when she was small watching storm clouds roll in and out of their area while he taught her about their majesty and raw power.

_It's going to be okay._ He would come to respect Klaus and her decision.

Milla spent the whole day caring for her father while everyone was out. At sundown, when Elijah and Elena returned he had fallen asleep. Milla grabbed the car keys, headed out.

She hadn't been able to see Klaus all day while she tended to her father. Only a day, and yet she missed him. Just thinking of the look in his eyes when he spoke for them both to her father, made her heart pound.

His cabin was quiet, only one small light shining through the front window. As she pulled up, he appeared on the front porch.

Milla stepped out of the car and strode right up without stopping to wrap her arms around him.

She didn't speak. Instead, she leaned up and kissed him. He drew a surprised breath and she smiled against his lips. Running her hands over his back, she wove them under the material and up over smooth cool skin. He gasped and deepened the kiss.

Her hands continued their flow across him, moving to both sides and sliding slowly up over him. Both of his hands came around to cup her bottom and pull her hips more tightly against him.

Finally, she ran her fingertips over his chest from his clavicle to his waist, treasuring every ripple and muscle that spasmed as she touched it, kissing him feverishly all the while. Feeling bold, she pushed his shirt aside, breaking the kiss to lightly lick a flat nipple. His breath hissed out of him and lifted her up from the floor, heading for the door, into the cabin before she could blink.

She found herself sitting on his bed. He was stripping away his shirt and stepping out of his jeans quickly. She smiled and followed suit but he finished first. Hurried hands helped her rid herself of her bra and panties. Somehow, in his haste, her panties ended up a tattered pile of fluff. He looked uncertainly at her with what was left of them in his hands and she only smiled, patting the bed for him to sit. When he joined her, she went up on her knees, pushing him down hard against the bed. She noticed it made him smile for some reason.

She straddled him and leaned down again to touch him the way she had before, with her lips and tongue against the dark nipple. He groaned down deep, both hands coming up into her hair. His body arched slowly under her as she moved to the other side. She sank down on him and they moved together setting a frenzied rhythm. His hands came up, a caress that moved across her back and around to her breasts. The moment went on and on, a beautiful tension building in them both.

Her cry of release filled the room as she reached the goal before he did. A few seconds later Klaus let out what she could only call a roar as his whole body drew tight and shuddered under her.

She rested her head on his chest, working to catch her breath. His arms came up tightly around her as they laid there.

Milla turned after a few moments and met his eyes.

"Hello." She said with a smile.

Klaus tipped his head back and his laughter filled the room.

"I concede defeat. You are _much better_ at hellos than I _ever_ could be." He told her as he rolled her to the side, wrapping arms and legs around her.

"I've been wanting to do that for quite a while." She confided as he had when he'd kissed her hello before in the gardens, her smile widening. He laughed again.

She pointed out that although it was funny, it was also true.

"Consider my door always open for you and your hellos." He told her as he kissed her.

When they grew quiet again, Milla said, "Thank you for bringing my dad back to me." She leaned up and met his eyes.

"Surely you know by now that I would do anything for you." He told her with a smile, his eyes moving slowly over her face.

"I love you." Was her answer and he echoed it back to her, his eyes glowing with it.

In the warm silence between them, something occurred to her.

"How did you find him, anyway? We didn't have any leads." She asked, rising to lean on one elbow.

His eyes went to the ceiling, avoiding her gaze. "A witch owed me a favor."

She studied his profile. "And wasn't particularly eager to pay up."

Denim blue eyes met hers and were narrowed. "How do you do that?" He sat up and moved close so their nose tips touched.

All wide eyed innocence, she asked him with a smile, "What?"

"Already know what I have not yet said." He was smiling too, his voice a mock growl at her.

A slim shoulder rose and fell in a small shrug as her smile faded away. "I don't know. It's not always there. And it's not just you. So don't think it's some failing on your part. I don't usually say what I know like I have with you. I'll keep all of that to myself if you want." Her husky voice had grown small, her eyes focused on her toes.

A hand came up to touch her face and he brought her eyes up to meet his.

"Not at all. It is a marvel to me to be so well understood." Small arms came up around him, a relieved smile shining up at him.

"Then I'll say thank you for whatever you had to do to get your favor paid back. It was something you're not proud of."

He smiled down at her and shook his head. "I had to pretend to still be who I once was." He admitted.

_Threats of violence were a small price to pay for her father's life_, Klaus told himself.

"And that was hard for you." Amber eyes glowed at him and she pressed a kiss to his chin. "I'm sorry."

"I can see keeping secrets from you will be a problem."

She moved in close and began pressing slow open mouthed kisses along his throat and jawline.

The heat rekindled between them and he said, "But then again, secrets are overrated."

An hour later Klaus watched Milla gather her long hair over one shoulder. She sat with the blanket from his bed wrapped around her. He'd been watching her, fascinated. She was working a brush from her bag through her blonde hair. He stood, still undressed, and went to sit behind her on the bed.

Quietly he held a hand out to her as she worked and she turned to meet his eyes. Without speaking, he asked her for the brush. She smiled and shrugged handing it to him.

He moved the brush over her hair in slow, smooth strokes watching her begin to relax her shoulders as he worked, the brush trailing over her naked back with each pass. Her hair was fine and soft. The light played over it highlighting strands that were so blonde they were white.

After a long while, he spoke. "What plans did you make for yourself before you came here?"

She had started to lean back against him as he worked and he felt her tense at his words. He continued to move the brush over her gently, waiting for an answer.

"You mean college? Career?" He nodded.

"To be honest I didn't make plans like that. I always knew my curse would activate. So, for me, that was the focus of my future." The words were a whisper and she sighed while he gently worked.

"If you could do anything, then, what would it be?" He asked her quietly.

She grew still, her eyes closed while she considered as he moved the brush over her.

Finally, she said, on another sigh, "Travel. There hasn't been much chance for that. Dad does okay on a mechanic's salary, but there was never enough for much more than coming here for vacations and holidays. I've always wanted to see New York City. Oh…and Paris. I took French in school and that's the closest I've ever come."

There was nothing she could've said that would have pleased him more. She had a restless heart just as he did. He'd been still here for months and it was highly unusual for him. His norm was to be moving, one city to another across Europe preferably. He laid the brush down and gathered her to his chest pressing his lips to the crown of her blonde head.

"You are perfect." He whispered against her.

She turned to him with a smile. "Not perfect. I have nasty anger management issues." She took one of his hands and kissed the back of it.

He only smiled.

She stopped and looked down at his hand. After a moment she reached to take the other one.

"Everyone else I know like you wears a silver ring all the time. Why don't you?" He wore no jewelry.

"Those are daylight rings. A spell of my mother's a few decades into what we are. They allow us to walk in the sunlight."

"But you don't wear one." Her blonde hair fell over a shoulder as she cocked her head at him, her eyes narrowed.

"Not anymore. No." He could see her mind working. "Elijah does not need it either. He does not like to give anything away about himself. I could care less."

"So you're immune to wolf bites and sunlight." He smiled, inclining his head. She went on, "No weaknesses then?" She leaned close, laying her head on his bare chest.

"Just a certain blonde werewolf." He brought his arms up around her, a smile in his voice.

She snuggled close, turning her face and leaning her forehead against him.

"I really was worried I would hurt you someday. I can't tell you what a relief that is, that you're immune." He ran a hand along her hair.

"And I have been a nomad for centuries. See what I mean? Perfect."

"So you've already been everywhere?" She sounded disappointed.

But he laughed. "I have not been everywhere with you. And believe me when I say that it matters."

The next day Milla was with her father sitting in the chair at his bedside as he slept again. The wounds were closing and the tracks had faded. But the bones were still working to knit themselves together. Compared to human healing, Were healing was remarkable, taking days rather than weeks. But the damage to bone took time and he would continue to struggle for a few more days before he regained the use of his hands and feet.

The quiet rumble of voices down the hall caught her attention. She headed to the hall and stood, hearing Elijah's deep voice and then Klaus' answering it. They were together in Elijah's study with the door closed discussing strategy for what would come.

The closed door gave her pause, unsure about interrupting them. After a moment she straightened her shoulders and knocked after hearing their tentative plan.

A deep voice answered her and she opened the door. Milla stepped in, closing it behind her and leaning against it.

"I couldn't help but overhear." She said apologetically, her eyes moving between them.

"You should know that Weres have a long memory. If you draw them here and it becomes a fight, whoever comes shouldn't walk away. They'll come back again at a later date looking for retribution if they have the chance." She met Elijah's dark eyes as she spoke.

He looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded.

"I can see the wisdom in that." He told her solemnly.

"And the one who did this to my father….he's mine either way." Her husky voice had grown deep.

They both nodded after a moment, acknowledging her right to kill Jamie.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Milla woke to the sound of her own screams echoing in the darkness of her room. She sat up, covering her face with her hands and finding tears. There was a light tap and her door and Elena opened it, standing in the doorway.

"Honey?" It was a quiet whisper from Elena, concern in her tone.

Milla covered her mouth with one hand and tried to stifle a sob.

Elena was at her side in a blink and sitting gently on the edge of the bed, embracing her.

Milla couldn't stop the sobbing at first. It felt like it went on and on. The dream. It was back. More brutal than ever. So many people. Such a loss of life. She was shaking her head as she cried. The worst of it was that she recognized the man covered in blood now, in her dream. The one she knew would come true.

She drew slow, deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. Elena sat with her, holding her close. Finally, Milla spoke.

"I have dreams that come true sometimes. I've been having this one for almost a year. I know what it means now." Slow tears leaked from her eyes as she met Elena's.

"Tell me, honey." Elena whispered it to her.

"I'm standing in a field at sunset surrounded by people. Mostly men, but some women. They're everywhere. Many dozens." Milla drew a ragged breath before she went on. "The people start dropping around me, a spray of blood following each one as they drop. I don't see why they're dropping, only that they are and the ground is soaking up their blood. It goes on and on until there's no one standing except me. A man appears, standing in front of the sunset. He's covered completely in blood. A dark shadow against the sun. He stops and smiles up at me like he knows me. Then he licks some blood from his finger." Milla sat in silence for a long while, the image so clear in her mind it felt like it had already happened.

She turned her leaky, tear filled eyes to meet Elena's brown ones. "I never knew who it was until now. It's Klaus."

Elena met Milla's eyes and saw the torment there. The style of killing, the gesture, licking blood from his finger, Elena knew those were Klaus' signature. She also knew there was no way Milla could know those things.

She pulled the girl close, wrapping arms around her. Milla was describing basically the plan that she, Elijah and Klaus had agreed to, wiping out everyone standing when it came time to confront the wolves. They were all convinced that the leaders would not stop until they were either dead or had Milla.

They had attempted to reason with Jack first and bits and pieces of their plan had leaked out. These pack leaders believed that Milla was their future. Her abilities handed down to as many children as possible until, in a generation, they would be stronger, free of the moon and possibly unstoppable. They would breed her and harvest her like a wheat field. Her genetic material would be used to enhance as many as possible that were already alive and cursed.

They considered her theirs for the taking. And none of the people who loved Milla were willing to let her go.

When Milla had grown still, Elena spoke quietly.

"Honey, I believe you. You know that Elijah, Klaus and I are not just average vampires, right?"

Milla nodded against her.

"We will all do whatever we have to do to keep you safe. The three of us. It won't just be Klaus. And whoever comes here won't walk away, just like you told Elijah."

Milla gasped, her head still tucked. "But there are so many."

Elena held on a little tighter. "I'm sorry. Honey. But we will do whatever we have to." She repeated quietly.

"Dying because of me." Milla gasped the words out in a rush, her head tucked to Elena's shoulder.

"No." Elena pulled away to arm's length and brought Milla's eyes up to meet hers with a finger under her chin. "Not because of you. Because of the ones they take orders from. Because of their own choices. You are plenty strong, but you can't make people do what they don't want to do. Their lives are in the hands of their leaders and themselves." She paused, meeting watery amber eyes.

"None of this is your fault. And it never will be. No matter what happens. You have a right to live and be free just as much as anyone. They will take all of that away from you, given the chance, honey."

Somehow Milla was finally able to fall asleep again, but she woke the next morning with new purpose. She still wanted to kill Jamie, but it took a back seat to what she knew now she had to do.

She spent her morning sitting with her father again. He was getting stronger every day. He could wiggle his fingers now. A few more days and he'd be back to normal again. He was gruff and funny as always.

Milla excused herself around noon kissing him on the forehead and telling him she loved him.

She caught Elena at the poolside. They sat in silence for a long time.

Finally, Milla spoke. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Her eyes were on hands that wrung in her lap. She meant about her relationship with Klaus and she knew Elena would understand that.

"You don't have to tell me everything. I understand." Elena answered quietly.

Milla remained quiet, unsure what to say to that, guilt still lashing her.

"When I first started seeing Elijah, I didn't tell anyone either." Elena admitted. Milla turned to look at her, surprised and studied Elena's distant smile.

"Everyone was afraid of him. Would've tried to stop me." Elena went on. "I wasn't afraid, though."

"How old were you?" Milla's biggest concern was the way others would say about the difference in her age with Klaus'. That had kept her quiet.

Elena laughed a little and met Milla's eyes.

"Just like Elijah said, it started when I was sixteen. I was seeing Damon at the time." Milla's eyes went wide. She never knew that Elena and Damon had dated.

"You loved Elijah then?"

Elena smiled and nodded. "I didn't understand what I was feeling, but yes, it was love. He fascinated me. I became all awkward and unsure whenever he was around. He came here with Klaus years ago looking for something to counter a curse. They thought at first that it was me, but the whole thing fell apart."

"And he loved you, too?"

Elena's smile grew wider. "I didn't know it, but he says yes. I lied to him about something important and he got hopping mad at me."

Milla laughed at the image of Elijah seriously mad about anything.

Elena laughed too, shaking her head in agreement. "Yes. Exactly. He doesn't really get hopping mad. But he was. It took me two years to figure out what it meant that I could make him angry when he's this calm, quiet soul."

Elena shifted in the lawn chair and turned to face her. She reached out and took one of Milla's hands.

"Sometimes, if we really love each other, things work out. If there was ever two people who deserved that, it would be the two of you. Both of you have been through the fire. You deserve joy now." Elena was smiling at her, hope lighting her eyes. But Milla's filled with tears without her meaning for them to. Elena only smiled more widely and hugged her close before she got up to go back inside.

When she had moved away a few steps, Milla called out to her.

"I love you, Elena." Elena turned, smiling again.

"I love you, too, honey." Elena called back.

Milla found Elijah in the gardens dressed in work clothes and wielding a shovel. He was surrounded by a dozen containers of flowers all blooming in bright display, all waiting for a resting place in their gardens. She smiled as she stood close and used a thumb to wipe some dirt from his cheek.

"You're busy today." She told him and he shrugged.

"Elena loves flowers." He stopped to lean on his shovel.

"And you love planting." She finished for him and he smiled, nodding. She stopped to pick through them, admiring the colors.

Finally she stood, saying, "I won't keep you." She stepped close and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He wove an arm around her shoulder as she did. Dark eyes watched her closely for the first time as she turned and walked away.

Milla found Klaus walking in the afternoon heat on the trails between Elijah's home and Klaus' cabin. They talked and laughed, walking toward Klaus' cabin hand in hand.

When they were alone together in his cabin, the heat struck between them and Milla had never had a more loving, tender afternoon in her entire life. She told him without words how much she loved him, showing him with her hands, her lips, her body, so that he would never doubt. No matter what.

When he stepped into the shower, she fought back the tears and dressed quickly. She laid a note on the bed and was gone before he'd turned the water off. Her heart shuddered in her chest, but she would do this, no matter the cost.

Klaus could see the resolve in the angle of Milla's shoulders, in the set of her jaw when she met him on the trails. She broke his heart with her tenderness, watching her fight the mist in her eyes when they made love. He had seen enough, been the one saying goodbye often enough that he recognized the signs. His hands shook as he stood under the spray of the shower and the pain in his chest had returned to keep him company, like an old friend. He already knew when he emerged that she'd be gone. He didn't know why this was happening. _Had she had changed her mind? Maybe she'd become afraid, or decided he was too old for her after all? _He let the spray move over his face, rinsing the tears away so that only he would know they had ever been.

Steeling himself, he emerged from the shower wrapped in a towel to find his fears confirmed. He stood, pulling deep breaths, staring at the note she'd left for him.

Eyes misted, he sat next to it on the bed and swallowed hard before he unfolded the small page. A hand came up to cover his eyes after he read and he hung his head. The page lay open next to him.

It read: _I will always love you. But I have to ask you to let me go. Love, Milla._

Klaus stared hard at the floor, trying to wrap his head around the note. She loved him. Said she would always love him. But then she wanted him to let her go. The two sentences together made no sense to him. _Why did he have to let her go? Why?_

Did she not know how rare and wonderful this thing between them was? That she could walk away so easily? Frustration had him picking a clay bowl from the table beside his bed and reducing it to dust as it struck the far wall.

His cell phone made a high irritating sound from the drawer beside his bed. He stood and yanked the drawer open intending to heft it at the wall as well. The name on the screen made him hesitate. Elena.

He answered abruptly, putting it on speaker.

"Klaus? Is Milla okay?" Elena's voice echoed in his silence.

He swallowed hard. "I wouldn't know. She's gone." His voice was strangled.

"Gone? She's been acting strange. She had a nightmare last night and we're worried about her." Elena explained.

That caught his attention. "A nightmare?"

Elena went on to explain what Milla described. How she knew things that she shouldn't and blamed herself.

In that moment Klaus clearly saw Milla's plan and his heart seized in his chest.

"I think the two of you should get over here." He told Elena before he disconnected the call.

His heart in his throat, he dressed quickly and stepped out into the wind hoping to figure out, with some certainty, the direction she'd taken when she left.

After a few minutes, he pinpointed her scent. Just as he'd suspected, she was headed away from the Elijah's home and away from him. She had set off into the trees going further west, off of Elijah's land. Purposely staying downwind, he followed her scent, intent on intercepting her.

_The woman he loved had set out to become a blood sacrifice and he'd be damned if he'd let her._

Milla had been walking for forty five minutes when she decided she was far enough away that they'd never know for certain exactly where she'd come from, or trace her back to Elijah's home. She figured they really wouldn't care, probably would never take the time to try, but she was determined to protect the people she loved.

Pulling out her cell phone, she hit Jamie's name on her contact list. She still had him listed in her phone, thankfully.

On the second ring, he picked up.

"Milla?" His deep voice rang across the line.

"Are you tracing this call?" She asked, her voice tightly drawn.

"Of course." His arrogance came across, loud and clear.

"Good." She whispered.

"What the hell are you involved with, Milla? Those men at the warehouse looked like they'd been through a wood chipper." His voice was the tight one now, and she could hear the undertone of fear.

"You mean the ones that were helping you try to kill my father?" They had got what they deserved and her tone said it, loud and clear.

"We weren't going to let him die." He gasped at her.

"Liar. You should try truth sometimes, just to mix things up." When he sounded his most outraged, it was always a lie. She heard him as he started to sputter a defense at her and she interrupted him.

"Is the trace finished?"

"Yes." His voice was gruff.

"Good. Come get me. I won't fight." She hung up the call abruptly, tired of his voice and his lies.

She'd kill him one day. But it wouldn't be today. Today was about saving a hundred lives because Jamie was too arrogant and selfish to even consider there was a fight he couldn't win.

Milla knew she had easily fifteen minutes before they reached her, maybe more. So she kept moving, not to get away, but to continue to put a distance between herself and the people she loved. No one she loved would be at risk today and no one needed to die. It was likely that she would, but she'd come to accept that.

Her life, in the balance with so many, seemed the most reasonable loss. Tears streaked her face as she moved quietly through the trees.

To stay strong, to keep moving, she focused on her memories of the afternoon with Klaus. There would never be another for her. She understood her father better today than she ever had. For her entire life he'd insisted that there would never be another woman for him after her mother's abandonment. Her urgings for him to date usually met with quiet fury.

Now, only now, she understood.

She was losing everything, even the man she loved today. Her heart rebelled at the thought of his memories being superseded by someone else. His face, his scent, his voice would carry her for the rest of her days, which weren't likely to be many.

Milla heard the all-terrain vehicles approaching and caught the traces of at least twenty separate scents converging on her in the field. She'd reached the edge of the woods and come to an open clearing about the time they reached her. One vehicle pulled up and Jamie stepped from it, his arms opened in a gesture of peace. But of course she knew better.

As he reached her, to embrace her, another stepped close and sunk a needle in her arm.

She met Jamie's eyes.

"The drugs aren't needed. I'll come quietly." She told him as the trees began to spin.

"From today, I decide what you need." He whispered to her, his eyes moving over her with the same hunger that had always been there.

Klaus took a moment to take in the scene. Milla was surrounded by about three dozen Weres, some of them transformed, but most of them not. She was in the arms of a blonde man and he appeared to be holding her up, her body slumped forward against him. Her eyes were dim, unseeing and closed as he stood there. Tipping his head to the wind, he knew there were easily three dozen more Weres in the surrounding woods moving slowly in their direction.

Elijah and Elena were a few minutes behind him, headed this way.

If here was where this had to happen, then here it would be. Away from the house was even better.

He moved swiftly between the people standing around her and appeared suddenly next to the young blonde man holding Milla up.

"Jamie, I presume." He said when the Were met his eyes.

He watched amber eyes go wide before the stranger slowly, cautiously nodded his head once.

"You have something that belongs to me." Lightning fast, he pulled Milla from this stranger's arms, hefted her over one shoulder and disappeared.

He covered distance to the tree he'd found in only a minute. It had a small opening and she would be safe there until the drugs wore off. Without titrated doses at regular intervals, her Were metabolism would chew the drugs up and spit them out quickly. It was just a matter of a safe place for that to happen. Gently he laid Milla in the crook of the tree and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Klaus." Her voice was distant, her eyes unfocused. "I tried to…" Her voice trailed off and tears leaked from her eyes.

"I know. You tried to stop it. By giving your life. To keep so many from dying." He whispered against her forehead before he pressed a kiss there. "There was one problem with your plan. You asked the one thing of me I cannot do. I cannot let you go."

_Not if she loved him. And he believed her when she said she did. This was her selflessness rearing its head and he would have none of it. Not now. Not ever._

Her eyes fluttered closed.

"You did all you could do, love. Now it is my turn."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Klaus met up with Elijah and Elena at the edge of the field, just inside the tree line. The three of them stood surveying the scene. An eruption of activity had been the result of Klaus' quick exit with Milla. There was turmoil as the Weres had started to spread out, searching out her scent. In their haste and confusion, the Weres had failed to notice them yet.

Klaus explained quickly what he'd found and how many he estimated were close in quiet tones. Milla was hidden a good distance from here and they wouldn't be allowed to get close to her while she metabolized the drugs they gave her. Klaus also pointed out who Jamie was for Milla's sake. They had made a promise, after all.

Quietly, the three of them stepped from the cover of the tree line into the clearing together, shoulder to shoulder.

Elijah stepped up and spoke, addressing the Weres in a loud voice, his hands stretched out, open palmed.

"No one has to die, if you'll walk away and not come back. Leave the girl and her father in peace." It was a stretch of the truth. Milla would kill her father's friend eventually, even if it wasn't today.

The scene seemed to freeze, all of the Weres, on two legs or four, stopped to look up at the stranger. A tall, broad shouldered Were with gray hair stepped forward his head tipped to the wind.

"Vampires. Really? Is that the best you've got?" He called back and there was ripple of laughter around him.

It made Klaus smile, too, but not for the same reason. Elena and Elijah both carried vials of his blood that he'd given them only the day before for just such an occasion. They didn't know what a bite would do to Elijah, but Klaus wasn't taking any chances or allowing the people he loved to be at risk. And they all knew Elena was at risk without it.

To drive Elijah's point home, Klaus stepped forward. Silently and effortlessly, he shifted, rising to nine feet in his wolf, his massive head swinging to survey the field of enemies with malice in his red eyes.

Elijah, smiled broadly, stepped forward to proudly place a hand on his brother's foreleg. Klaus heard Elena's gasp of wonder from somewhere behind him.

"Maybe not." Elijah called back. "None of you will walk away from this if you don't all do it right now." His deep voice filled the silence around them.

The entire field of wolves, men and women had grown silent. Some of them had shifted because the full moon was just a few hours from rising. Most of them had not. A few of them perceived the impending threat.

The tall, older Were let out a battle cry and the entire field of Weres took the signal. Together they surged forward rather than heed the warning Elijah had given them.

Elijah looked back, to his right first at Elena and then to Klaus nodding to each of them.

As one, the three of them fanned out whipping through the ones closest to them like lightning over a dark sky. Each of them had a different style in their attack. Elijah, ever efficient, was separating heads from bodies so that the two dropped together after he'd already moved onto the next, the spray spreading out around him. Elena was quietly snapping necks, with no spray or mess if possible unless it was a wolf she faced. Then she was reaching in, tearing out the heart and moving along before the body slumped to the ground. Klaus, still as his wolf, was wrapping wide jaws around one, savaging them and discarding the body open mouthed in a spray of blood and bones before he moved to the next. He also was moving on before the remains struck the ground with a splatter.

The Weres had no counter attack in their confusion because they couldn't tell where the attack was coming from. Their three assailants were impossible to see.

Klaus caught Milla's scent and shifted, continuing to move through the field of enemies without missing a beat. On two legs he shoved a hand into his victim's abdomen and allowed his sheer momentum to force them apart, basically split down the middle.

The three of them were working across the field and had left Milla's target still standing, to watch his friends die around him, their blood turning the ground red.

Milla stepped out of the trees, her vision still distorted from the drugs and shaking her head to clear it. She noticed the sun was setting and the sounds of screams filled the air. Horror made her eyes round as her gaze swept the field and bodies continued to drop, even as Klaus appeared.

Klaus had paused, turned to look in her direction and she froze. He licked the blood slowly from a finger and pointed with it.

Milla's eyes followed the gesture. She saw Jamie at the far edge of the field driving one of the ATVs into the woods.

_Jamie was getting away. So many he had brought here were dying and he was getting away._

Instinctive fury threw her body high and forward. Her scream rapidly deepened to a howl, her transformation complete before her front feet hit the ground, leaving her clothes in tattered shreds that soaked up the blood with the earth. Massive hind quarters pushed off and she hit speed she didn't know she had, giving chase after Jamie in his vehicle.

Three hundred yards from the fray, Milla caught up with him. She aimed herself at it, striking the ATV from behind with all of her weight and all of her might. It flipped end over end, her going along with it part of the way.

When it came to a stop upside down, Jamie crawled slowly out.

Milla watched him from a few yards away, her head low, her fur bristled high. A low, deep growl rose from her as she took a step toward him.

"You have the advantage, Milla." He spoke low, evidently thinking to calm her back to herself the way her father could.

But she was perfectly calm now that she had him.

She purposely shifted back. This time, her pride let her hold her cries of pain in as she became a woman again. Milla stood there, naked and unashamed.

Jamie's eyes raked her over, making her skin crawl. She knew him well enough to recognize that if she could anger him, get him off balance, he would fly at her in a temper giving her the advantage. She also knew that his obvious belittling expressions were an attempt to shame her away.

Instead, she crossed her arms under her breasts and stood there proudly.

"I don't need my wolf to kill you." She smiled. "You don't honestly think this is done, do you? That you can get so many people killed and walk away…" Her head was cocked to one side.

"You called us here." He shot back, his expression saying he was not the one at fault here.

"No." She raised a brow. "I called _you_ here. _You're_ the one that brought an army to retrieve one woman and refused to back down, like a fool." She shook her head at him. Milla wasn't present for all of that, but she knew the plan, their intended offer to let everyone walk away in peace as a last resort.

"Did you see him? The "wood chipper"?" She smiled, just thinking of how Klaus would laugh at that. "I chose _him_. Gave him _everything_." She gestured to the body he couldn't take his eyes off of.

"And I would do it again, a thousand times." Her husky voice became a sing song whisper hoping for that waited explosion of temper.

"I loved you." He told her with a snarl, his lip curling around the words.

Milla laughed. "Liar. You have never love anyone as much as you love yourself." She braced, thinking that would do it, but he still just watched her. He seemed to sense the danger somehow.

She stood straight then, squaring her shoulders and gesturing to herself again.

"It was no choice really. Honestly, standing here today _I'm _twice the man _you_ are." She watched that strike home as his eyes narrowed.

He sprung then, coming at her with full strength and speed.

She lifted an arm and struck him, back handed, across the jaw. He flew to the side, skidding face first ten feet away. Springing after him, determined that she wouldn't lose this chance at retribution, she wrapped strong hands around his ankle and turned it with a crack in the wrong direction.

He screamed, the sound echoing around them into the trees, with no one to answer him. No help would come.

She rolled him over and moved to the next one, stopping to look him in the eye as he struggled uselessly to get away.

"Blood for blood." Milla told him as she snapped the second one. It was what the pack chanted when the Alpha was administering punishment.

Milla took her time snapping first one wrist and then the other, the cold fury in her heart still unsatisfied. She leaned down to meet his eyes, ready to snap his neck and have it done.

He looked up at her and beneath the pain was still the same cold hatred she'd seen in him before. Love? Just another lie. There was no love in his heart for anyone.

"Your mother would be proud." He gasped out at her, clearly trying to delay her murderous intent.

She met his eyes and understanding dawned as she peeled back the layers of malice she saw in his eyes. Her own eyes misted and she blinked the tears back.

"She didn't leave. You killed her." She knew it as sure as she was standing there, felt the depth of his pride in what he'd done.

He lifted his head and spat on the grass. "Your father, our Alpha, mated with a filthy human. One who lacked the courage to even activate her curse. She was a useless embarrassment to us all." He ground out when he met her eyes. The admission was a distraction, and for a moment it worked.

"She died whimpering like a coward for her life." He told her in a hateful, horrible whisper. For once, she knew he was telling the truth. He was too proud of it not to be.

Milla's tears fell as she stood there, crouched over him. Finally, she put two hands over his mouth and nose, blocking his airway.

"Then you'll die the same way. Blood for blood, you son of a bitch." With his wrists and ankles broken, he was helpless just as her father had been.

True to her word, he met his end just as he said her mother had.

The cold fury in her chest became a roar when it was done and she screamed as she shifted. This time a depth of pain she'd not felt before overtook her. Her wolf leapt toward the darkened woods, a deep mournful howl being carried on the night air.

Klaus stepped silently from the shadows and shifted, as well, to go after her.

He found her atop a small rise, her head tipped to the sky as she howled mournfully at the moon. At his approach, she rumbled at him at first, a warning growl. He lowered his head, but kept coming. She turned and watched him, her golden eyes pained as they glittered in the darkness. When he came close enough, he slipped his head under her snout, his body low next to hers. He stayed there, still and quiet, mourning the loss of her mother with her.

After a long while, she shifted with a cry. She sank her face into the bloody fur at his side and wept soundlessly like a broken child that expected no comfort.

Niklaus shifted too, wrapping his body, still covered in blood from the fight, around her. He offered her the comfort her broken heart didn't have the strength to ask for.

When she was calm, he noticed she was starting to tremble in the cool night air. He lifted her up, against his chest and carried her quickly back to the cabin. Klaus sat her on the edge of the bathtub, turning on the warm water, hoping to warm her again.

Milla sat under the warm spray of the shower drawing deep breaths. Her eyes filled with tears again as she thought of how many years she had quietly hated her mother for leaving them. So much pain and anger tied up in a lie.

"He killed my mother, too." She rasped, her eyes on the shower wall.

"I know. I heard." Niklaus answered her. "A just end if there ever was one."

Klaus was kneeled beside her, watching her closely. He was still covered in blood, but watching with concern in his deep blue eyes. She stood, stepping out of the spray and reached for him. He pulled her close, both of them now wet, and just held her.

After a breath, she decidedly reached to strip his ruined shirt off. When that was gone, she reached for the button of his jeans and he let her. Together they stripped away his bloodstained clothes and both of them stood under the shower spray while it washed dirt and leaves from her and blood from him.

He smiled at her when she reached for the shampoo bottle. He was patient while she reached up and washed his hair for him, smiling at her efforts with him so tall. When she grabbed a bottle of shower gel, his smile faded and she watched the heat spark in his eyes.

Somehow, doing this, focusing somewhere else, helped her not to feel so much.

She worked from his face and neck gently while he closed his eyes. After a bit, she stepped behind him and worked across his back with the soaped cloth, carefully covering every inch of him with soap to wash away the memory of this night. The muscles in his back rippled as she moved across them, but he held himself still.

Klaus was keeping his turmoil to himself as best he could. He could see it in her golden eyes as they narrowed while she worked. She was determined to do this. So he was determined to let her by being as still and quiet as he could. He wasn't strong enough to stop his breath leaving him in a hiss, though, when she reached low with her soapy hands. She was behind him, her chin resting against his shoulder, her hands moving over him. She shifted positions a little and he felt her smile against his skin.

He spun in her arms and she was smiling up at him.

"Minx." He whispered at her before kissed her.

She laughed a little when he broke the kiss. "I wondered how long you'd let me get away with that."

"Probably until the hot water ran out if I had not noticed your smile." He told her as he backed her against the shower wall.

Her smile faded as she met his eyes.

"I love you." She told him, her eyes welling.

"And I love you." He pressed his lips to her forehead tenderly before he leaned back again.

"If we are going to do this, be together, it will require you to be breathing. So, do not try to get yourself killed again. Please. This old heart can only take so much." He patted his chest with one hand for emphasis and she frowned, her brow furrowing with concern.

"I'm sorry. I was trying to keep anyone from getting hurt…." She whispered at him until her voice trailed off.

"And you nearly tore my heart from me in the doing." He whispered back at her.

Milla leaned down and pressed her lips where he'd patted his chest.

"I honestly didn't even think about what it would do to you. I haven't been loved like this before." She admitted huskily.

He moved closer until he was flush against her, his face against the shower wall near her shoulder.

"Well, you are now. So be kind, love."

Her hands came up over his back, fingertips sliding slowly over him and he closed his eyes. She kissed his shoulder, his neck, his clavicle. With each kiss, she said, "I'm sorry." Or "I love you." A long leg came up around him, wrapping tightly at his hips to draw him close.

Klaus sighed deeply against her, his hands skimming over slick smooth skin. She drew him closer still, until they were one and his old heart found its peace again.

Later they laid in his bed, Milla's head resting on his shoulder, their legs a tangle under the sheet.

"I do have one question for you." He said it into the calm silence that had enveloped them.

She brought her head up to meet his eyes.

"What exactly is a "wood chipper"?" His head was cocked to one side and his brows were up as he smiled down at her.

Milla laughed and the husky sound echoed around them making him smile. Niklaus was still baffled by the expression he'd heard her use but he did _so love_ the sound of her laughter.

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Two days later Milla stood outside the Salvatore boarding house, leaned up against the ancient blue mustang that Damon loved so much. She knew it was his habit to take it out on Sunday mornings to putter around town because she'd gone with him on those trips more than once. This conversation needed as few spectators as possible. So she waited.

As the sun moved high in the Eastern sky, she heard his front door open and close. Three steps toward the car he saw her and came rushing forward to hug her up.

"I'm so glad you're okay. I heard about what went down." Damon was speaking into her hair, holding her close.

She wrapped arms around him, feeling relief that this was still here. So much was gone, but the best things remained.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there, Mills."

"It worked out for the best. I would've spent the whole time worrying you'd get bitten by someone, anyway." She mumbled back, her mouth against his shoulder.

"You know I'll be hanging around then, I guess?" She asked as she leaned back to look up into those beautiful crystal blue eyes.

"I had wondered about that. No one really said."

"Dad and I have taken a house on Elijah's land for now."

There wasn't a home for them to return to. Her father had seen she wouldn't be safe out west anymore and had emptied the place, moving everything to storage before he ever got on that plane. This realization had led the pack to make a desperate grasp at trying to locate Milla.

"Good. You'll be safer here." Damon was smiling at her, genuinely pleased that they would be staying. Milla could see that for herself.

"I guess you know about him, too?" Milla scanned his face warily, but he only smiled.

"That you and Klaus are a couple now? Yeah. I know." He raised his hands in surrender. "Officially not my business." But he was watching her closely.

Her eyes went to the ground. "I love him."

"And he'd be a bigger fool that I thought if he didn't feel the same." He told her as he raised her chin with two fingers.

"He said it first, even." Milla grinned at him. "But there's something he said that's been troubling me. That's why I waited for you here, rather than knock."

Damon went to lean against the car and she joined him, sliding up to perch on the hood.

"What can I do?" He asked kindly, being the friend to her he'd always been.

"Will you be honest with me?"

He grinned and crossed his heart, holding up three fingers like a vow. But Milla laughed at him. "There is no way you were ever a boy scout, so you're gonna have to say it."

He grinned, caught in his playful treachery. "Okay. I'll be honest."

"Klaus told me that he wasn't going to say anything about how he felt, but circumstances forced it out of him. The reason he gave for keeping quiet is what worries me. For you." Damon's eyes moved quietly over the gravel as he absorbed that.

Milla reached out and took his hand in both of hers, turning sideways on the car hood as she did.

"Damon, I've known you are in love with Elena since I was thirteen." Blue eyes snapped up to search her face and his lips tucked to a tight frown.

"It's in the way you look at her." Milla whispered.

Damon drew a deep breath, met her eyes and only nodded, admitting that she had it right.

"I used to hope someone would look at me that way someday." She took his hand and turned it to press the back of it to her heart.

"He does, doesn't he?" Damon's voice was low and rough, light blue eyes searching her face.

Milla smiled and nodded. "Yes. He does."

She drew a deep breath and her smile faded away. "Klaus didn't think I would ever return his feelings. He told me that he believed that his loving me was some karmic debt that would be required of him. A punishment for all he'd done." Milla watched Damon blanche with the words as she spoke them.

Milla kept his hand in both of hers, holding on a little tighter. "I think you two have more in common than you think." She whispered over his hand.

"I guess you really are good at reading people, aren't you? How did I miss that?" Damon's blue eyes moved over her, like he was seeing her for the first time.

Milla stood and wrapped her arms around him while he remained seated on the car. "Hurting like this isn't something you deserve, no matter what you did when you were someone else. I love you, my friend. I had to say something."

She turned and whispered in his ear, "It's time to move forward. You've hurt long enough. Go find happiness for yourself. _That_ is what you deserve _now_."

Damon sighed raggedly, wrapping her close. Slowly he nodded, his face in her hair. He held her there for a minute.

Finally he said, "I'm guessing he'd kill me if he could see this right now." Rather than being troubled by the idea, Milla could hear the smile in Damon's voice.

"He knows I love you the same way you love me. Friends. He'd still be annoyed probably, but I can handle Klaus." She leaned back to smile up at him just in time to see him roll his eyes.

"You know who you sound like, don't you?"

"Elena? Yeah. I know. But it's still true."

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen." Damon said, smiling as he pulled her close for one last hug.

Her forehead on his shoulder, Milla said, "You'll find someone that will figure out how to handle you."

Damon nodded again, his head leaned against hers. She felt him sigh, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Sometimes healing started with being understood. Milla hoped that she had just offered that to Damon.


	14. Epilogue

Epilogue

Six months had passed since the day Klaus saved Milla's life. They sat at a small table that still managed to be intimate amid the bustle of New York City nightlife. A quiet dinner was their only plan. Milla wore a sky blue dress with spaghetti straps and a high squared neckline paired with tan high heeled pumps. The dress hit her well above the knee and clung like a second skin. It was her first trip to the city and she'd made sure she at least _looked _like she belonged.

Klaus smiled at her over his wine glass. He was also dressed for the occasion in a light grey shirt that opened at the throat and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. Slim pants the same color and a matching vest that hung open made her heart race when he emerged from the bedroom in the apartment they were using in the city. It didn't matter what he wore, jeans or a tuxedo, he always made her heart pound out a clumsy rhythm.

He put his glass down and reached across the table to take her hand.

"Tell me what you are thinking." His demand really wasn't when it was accompanied by that smile she now knew so well. He asked her to tell him what she was thinking all the time.

Milla grinned. "That I've come all the way to New York to see the sights and still can't take my eyes off of you."

He laughed, long and loud. "Who is the flatterer now?"

Milla's smile grew. "I will never flatter you. Only truth."

Klaus laughed again, recognizing his own words being turned on him.

Milla's eyes narrowed automatically as a stranger approached them from behind him. A tall red head surrounded by a riot of curls to her waist and lips painted scarlet came to stand close to Klaus. _Too close._

"I thought I knew that laugh." The woman purred at him with a husky tone. She wore a black sheath dress with a plunging neckline. Her large breasts were high and mostly on display.

The stranger turned eyes on Milla and dismissed her without missing a beat.

"I see you're raiding the schoolyard these days." She'd leaned down, giving Milla a clear view down her dress, though it was aimed at Klaus. One of her arms went around Klaus' shoulder as she leaned.

"Vivian." Klaus' discomfort was obvious. And it told Milla all she needed to know. Klaus sat up straighter in his chair, but kept his hand in Milla's, clearing his throat.

The full moon was high. It didn't force her to change, but did make her temper more touchy. So Milla was now annoyed, watching closely that arm and the hand that still laid against his shoulder. Red tipped nails stood out against pale skin and an ancient looking silver ring she now recognized as a daylight ring glimmered at her. A vamp. The realization made Milla smile.

"I can assure you, I'm all woman and all Were." Milla purred back at Vivian, imitating her tone as her eyes shifted to solid gold.

Vivian met her eyes and saw Milla, really, for the first time. She stood straight again, her eyes wide. But she still had that hand on Klaus' shoulder.

Milla's solid golden eyes met Klaus' and she smiled wickedly. "I think I'll bite this one. I like to watch them writhe."

Vivian looked down at Klaus. "A werewolf? Here? Really?" She made it sound sacrilege somehow.

Milla didn't give him time to answer the accusation. She released his hand and stood from her chair.

"Yes, Vivian. A werewolf. You should also know there's a full moon tonight and you now have your hands On. My. Mate." Her voice deepened progressively, the last words becoming a low pitched growl.

Vivian snatched her hand away, her eyes going wide as she turned quickly for the door.

Milla watched Vivian pick up her pace and hit the exit before she sat back down again. Looking up at Klaus, she sighed. "How many times will I have to do that while we're here, do you think?"

Threatening strange women was becoming a hobby of hers. These women were all just…horrible. And under the impression that Klaus was unchanged. He could, and would, correct them gently. But if Milla was with him, her instincts often kicked in and words were had. They all seemed to think there was a revolving door in his life and they were welcome to walk through it. Milla had gotten good at reeducating them.

They also gave her a clear picture of who he used to be, and the contrasts with who he was now. It made her love and appreciate him and the changes even more, rather than make her angry with him. She still understood and believed that the other person who spent time with these women was someone else. _He _had much better taste than_ this._

She realized after a moment that Klaus was smiling broadly at her. That managed to annoy her, too.

"You think it's funny?"

He reached for her hand, his smile dimming a little. "No. Of course not. I am sorry about that. But Vivian has a large social circle for her audience and a weakness for gossip. I would say that word in the city will travel fast."

Klaus didn't mention the scandal it would cause because he frankly didn't care.

He paused to search her eyes. His head cocked slightly to one side, he said, "You have never called me your mate before."

Milla's face flushed. She hadn't even realized she'd said it. They had been together, their lives enmeshed for a blissful six months.

Her father had gotten used to the fact that she spent many of her nights at Klaus' home. Klaus had bought a four bedroom house with twenty acres that bordered the western edge of Elijah's land. Milla had smiled when she realized the cliff where they made love for the first time was included in the property he had purchased.

Much of her time was spent with him, in the warmth of his bed. But they had both carefully avoided defining this thing between them. They were just "together". Anything more definite than that made Milla's stomach clench.

"I was angry." She whispered. Her eyes on the table.

"So you did not mean it." His questions often sounded like statements, like he believed he already knew the answer. His voice had shifted to a gruff, thick sound Milla knew meant he was injured. Her eyes moved over him and he was the one staring at the tabletop now.

She squeezed his hand and he looked up at her. "I love you. It just feels dangerous to say things like that out loud."

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair while he watched her closely as she went on.

"We really only do this once, you know. My dad mated with my mom and they were together for a few years before I came along. Two years into raising me, she disappeared. We know now what happened. But he spent years believing she was still alive and still wore the wedding ring she gave him during their bonding ceremony. There won't ever be another for him. That is why this feels like a mine field to me."

His expression shifted again and stark pain looked back at her as he sat back in his chair.

"So it is a matter of time for exploring your options." The words were a whisper from him.

"No." The denial rushed out of her as she reached across the table with her other hand and covered his one with both of hers. She just needed to make him understand.

"I'm not holding out for something better because it doesn't exist. It's a matter of me overcoming a commitment phobia I didn't know I had. I'm working on it. I love _you_. I'm just asking you to be patient with me for what comes next. Please."

His blue eyes moved slowly over her face and the cautious pain faded away. He nodded once.

"You should know, with Vivian leaving here that way, it might have been more subtle to put an engagement announcement in The Post." He pointed that out with one eyebrow raised, watching her expressions again.

Milla drew a deep breath. That was her fault. Her temper always made her say more than she meant to.

"I'm sorry about that." She told him.

"I am not." She looked up into denim blue eyes that moved over her with tenderness. He said more with his eyes than his lips at times.

"What about a compromise?" She leaned forward, ready to plead her case. She'd been working up the nerve for this for weeks.

"Such as?" He leaned back in his chair again and crossed his arms over his chest, looking prepared for lengthy negotiations.

"What if we move in together?" She already had her list of good reasons ready. "That way if you decide you can't stand the way I chew, or that the way I put the cap on the toothpaste is going to drive you nuts we can…."

"Yes."

Milla was ticking off reasons on her fingers and stopped at his quick answer. There were still four more to go. Looking up from her hand, she met smiling eyes.

"You didn't let me finish."

"I am not the one who needed convincing." His smile made her pulse pound.

They sat smiling at one another as dinner arrived. After a few bites, Milla sat back, shifting in her seat.

"What is wrong?" Niklaus asked her, his head cocked to one side again.

Her face became a small grimace of discomfort and she leaned forward, speaking quietly.

"This dress." She shifted again. "When I put it on, I figured out pretty quickly that anything I wore under it was clearly visible. So, I had to…." Her voice trailed off as she met his eyes over the table.

Denim blue eyes narrowed as they moved over her.

His voice was harsh when he spoke. "Not wear anything under it?"

She nodded making a self-conscious face.

He was the one shifting in his chair then. Heat came to life in his eyes like a match being struck.

"We should go." He rasped at her.

Milla hid her smile when he stood, going in search of the check. She'd been doing this for a while when he got all wise and masterful. He'd be irritable now, caught in the singular focus of them being alone again. Klaus hadn't noticed the pattern yet, his mind being on other things and all.

_Relationships are all about balance_, Milla thought, as she watched his fast stride back to her holding out a hand. The heat in his eyes kindled to a roaring flame as she stood and he casually ran a hand from her shoulder to her hip, feeling nothing else on her aside from the dress.

He wouldn't be satisfied now until he had stripped away the dress, seeing for himself there was nothing under it.

Now, Milla's greatest challenge would be keeping him from seeing her sly smile.

**Author's note: **

**Driven by Klaus' stark honesty, I'm going to admit that I didn't write Milla intending she would be Klaus' eventual mate. I can't claim to be that clever. These characters tend to take on lives of their own. I was as surprised as anyone in ****Only and Always**** with Klaus' interest in Milla. I told someone I thought he might have a "wolf-crush" at the time. It ran deeper than I had imagined. I'm honestly always surprised by these characters.**

**This story in particular, caught my interest because I've always wondered what Niklaus would be like with his humanity. I honestly had no idea who he would be other than Elijah's terse description of his younger brother before his humanity drained away in ****Only and Always****. It's been fun getting to know him. I found a complex blend of honesty, vulnerability, confidence and strength that frankly fascinated me. I've not written a character quite so transparent in his communication as Klaus is. Whatever he thinks flits across his face and he has the confidence not to care or hide. I think he's just glad to be feeling something. **

**Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing. ****That**** is my payoff. **


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